THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Psychoanalysis 

Its  Theories  and  Practical  Application 


BY 


A.  A.  BRILL,  Ph.B.,  M.D. 

Lecturer  on  Psychoanalysis  and  Abnormal  Psychology,  New  York 

University;  Formerly  Adjunct  Professor  of  Psychiatry, 

Post  Graduate  Medical  School,  N.  Y. 


TEIRD  EDITION 
THOROUGHLY  REVISED 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

W.    B.    SAUNDERS    COMPANY 
1922 


Copyright,  1912,  by  W.  B.  Saunders  Company.    Reprinted  May,  1913.    Revised 

reprinted,  and  recopyrighted  April,  1914.    Reprinted  December,  1917. 

Revised,  entirely  reset,  reprinted,  and  recopyrighted  January,  1922 


Copyright,  1922,  by  W.  B.  Saunders  Company 


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TO  MY  ESTEEMED  TEACHER 

PROFESSOR  DR.  SIGMUND  FREUD,  LL.  D. 

WHOSE  IDEAS  ARE  HEREIN  REPRODUCED  THIS 
BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIRD  EDITION 


Since  the  appearance  of  the  last  edition  of  this  work, 
psychoanalysis  has  made  unprecedented  progress  both  as  a 
therapeutic  agent  and  as  an  expounder  and  interpreter  of 
subjects  and  phenomena  which  are  not  strictly  medical. 
As  a  result  of  its  successful  application  to  a  large  number  of 
psychoneuroses  precipitated  by  the  war,  psychoanalysis 
has  gained  many  new  adherents  among  physicians  who 
were  hitherto  unacquainted  with  it.  In  other  scientific 
fields  it  has  opened  up  new  vistas  in  biology,  psychology, 
belle  lettres,  sociology,  and  the  alHed  sciences;  this  is  shown 
by  the  numerous  works,  references,  and  discussions  in  the 
literature  on  these  subjects.  As  pleasing  as  this  is  one 
cannot  altogether  ignore  some  of  the  discordant  notes,  and 
disregarding  the  foolish  ranting  hurled  at  psychoanalysis 
now  and  then  by  ignorant  individuals,  one  is  struck  by 
some  misunderstanding  even  among  those  who  are  se- 
riously interested  in  the  subject.  As  most  of  these 
difficulties  arise  from  a  lack  of  understanding  of  the  psycho- 
sexual  problems,  a  knowledge  of  which  is  predisposed  in  all 
students  of  psychoanalysis,  new  material  was  added  with 
a  view  of  clarifying  some  of  the  specific  sexual  phenomena, 
especially  masturbation  and  homosexuality.  The  other 
new  chapter  on  Paraphrenia,  deals  with  a  class  of  rather 
mild  psychoses,  which  the  average  physician  rarely  recog- 
nizes, and  upon  which  psychoanalysis  throws  considerable 


2  PREFACE   TO   THE    THIRD    EDITION 

light.  The  rest  of  the  material  consists  of  new  cases  and 
illustrations  referring  to  various  problems  treated  in  the 
book. 

It  is  the  writer's  wish  that  this  edition,  for  the  tardiness 
of  which  he  alone  is  responsible,  will  continue  to  stimulate 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  great  works  of  Professor  Freud. 

A.  A.  Brill. 
New  York  City. 
January,  1922. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 


Adhering  to  the  original  object  of  this  book,  as  set  forth 
in  the  first  preface,  it  was  thought  best  to  add  to  this  volume 
new  illustrative  material  of  a  practical  and  instructive  char- 
acter. This  was  effected  by  the  insertion  of  analyzed 
dreams,  interesting  cases,  and  two  new  chapters.  In  addi- 
tion, the  book  has  been  thoroughly  revised  and  greatly 
enlarged  by  many  supplements.  The  new  material  com- 
prises discussions  on  artificial  dreams,  the  unconscious 
factors  in  neuroses,  collecting  manias,  pathologic  homo- 
sexuality, and  fairy  tales  as  a  determinant  of  dreams  and 
neurotic  symptoms.  At  the  suggestion  of  many  readers 
a  glossary  of  psychoanalytic  and  psychosexual  terms  was 
added. 

Although  there  has  been  an  enormous  increase  in  the 

psychoanalytic  literature  since  the  appearance  of  the  first 

edition  no  need  was  felt  for  modifying  any  of  its  essential 

principles.     The   new   material   either   confirmed   Freud's 

theories  or  provoked  discussions  of  a  purely  academic  nature 

which  cannot  here  be  entered  into.     Our  local  critics  have 

not  changed;  they  are  constantly  rehashing  what  was  said 

abroad,   and   what  was  adequately  answered  long  ago.* 

They  have  not  offered  a  single  new  idea  of  their  own.     Such 

*  Those  who  are  interested  may  read  Bleuler:  Die  Psychanalyse 
Freud's;  Jahrb.  f.  Psychoanal.  und  Psychopathol.  Forschungen,  Bd.  11, 
1911;  and  Ibid.:  Kritik  der  Freudschen  Theorien,  Allegemeine  Zeit- 
achrif t  fiir  Psychiatric,  LXX,  5. 

3 


4  PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

blind  criticism  will  not  stem  the  progressive  advance  of  the 
Freudian  views.  Indeed,  the  psychoanalytic  theories  have 
been  accepted  in  part  or  wholly  by  some  of  the  leading 
active  psychiatrists  in  this  country  and  abroad.  To  quote 
Jones:  "Assent  has  been  given  to  the  chief  of  Freud's  con- 
clilsions  by  such  men  of  scientific  eminence  and  sane  judg- 
ment as  Professors  Bleuler,  August  Hoch,  Jung,  Adolph 
Meyer,  and  Putnam.  *  Many  other  names  of  equal  promi- 
nence could  now  be  added.  Any  one  conversant  with 
medical  and  lay  literature  readily  sees  the  great  significance 
of  Freud's  psychologic  principles  in  modern  thought,  and 
the  influence  of  psychoanalysis  on  the  treatment  of  nervous 
and  mental  cases. 

As  gratifying  as  this  is,  attention  must  be  called  to  one 
great  danger,  the  danger  of  the  psychoanalytic  method  in 
untrained  hands.  The  necessary  training  and  other 
requisites  for  this  work  have  been  discussed  in  the  preface 
to  the  first  edition,  but,  in  view  of  later  developments,  it 
will  not  be  amiss  to  emphasize  a  few  more  points. 

As  psychoanalysis  deals  with  mental  factors,  it  is  only  just 
to  expect  that  those  employing  it  should  have  a  training  in 
psychiatry  and  neurology.  The  normal  and  abnormal  men- 
tal trends  and  reactions  of  each  patient  must  be  known  be- 
fore psychoanalysis  is  undertaken,  and  these  can  only  be 
correctly  diagnosed  by  those  trained  in  mental  work;  for 
not  every  nervous  and  mental  case  lends  itself  to  analysis, 
and  proper  selection  of  cases  would  obviate  many  failures 
and  criticisms.  The  writer  has  seen  much  harm  done  to 
patients  by  "wild  psychoanalysts,"  who  had  no  conception 

*  "  Reflections  on  Some  Criticisms  of  the  Psycho-analytic  Method  of 
Treatment,"  American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  July,  1911. 


PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND    EDITION  5 

of  what  they  are  doing.  Those  who  wish  to  take  up  psycho- 
analytic work  should  proceed  in  the  same  manner  as  in  any 
other  specialty.  The  reading  of  some  theoretic  works  about 
the  eye  or  throat  does  not  make  an  ophthalmologist  or 
laryngologist,  nor  does  theoretic  knowledge  make  a  psycho- 
analyst. It  must  be  remembered  that  all  the  pioneers  in  >j 
this  field  have  been  neurologists  and  psychiatrists  first. 
To  practice  psychoanalysis  without  previous  training  in  men- 
tal work  is  as  dangerous  as  practicing  surgery  without  a 
knowledge  of  anatomy;  and,  as  in  surgery,  no  definite  rules 
can  be  laid  down,  one  must  be  guided  by  what  he  finds; 
proficiency  depends  on  a  sound  preparation  and  much 
experience. 

As  the  two  new  chapters  have  originally  appeared  in  the 
New  York  Medical  Journal,  I  am  indebted  to  the  editor  for 
permitting  me  to  use  the  same. 

A.  A.  Brill. 

New  York  City. 


PREFACE 

Like  many  others  in  the  field  of  nervous  and  mental 
work,  I  received  my  training  in  the  State  Hospital  for  the 
insane.  It  was  my  fortune  to  enter  the  hospital  service 
at  a  very  important  period  of  its  development.  Dr. 
Frederick  Peterson  was  then  president  of  the  Commission 
in  Lunacy,  and  it  was  mainly  through  his  untiring  energy 
that  the  New  York  State  hospitals  were  thoroughly  modern- 
ized and  put  on  a  firm  scientific  basis.  It  was  also  mostly 
through  his  efforts  that  Dr.  Adolf  Meyer  became  director 
of  the  Pathological  Institute  at  Ward's  Island,  N.  Y. 

The  advent  of  Dr.  Meyer  marks  a  new  epoch  in  the 
N.  Y.  State  hospital  service.  An  accomplished  neuro- 
pathologist and  psychiatrist  of  long  experience,  he  soon 
instilled  new  life  and  interest  into  the  work  by  giving 
regular  courses  of  lectures  and  demonstrations  to  the 
interns  on  the  theories  and  methods  then  in  vogue.  The 
old  way  of  writing  a  one  line  note  about  the  patient's 
mental  and  physical  condition  every  three  or  six  months 
had  to  stop  despite  the  grumbling  of  the  "old  timers," 
and  we  were  required  to  make  frequent  and  comprehensive 
examinations  of  our  patients  and  note  carefully  what  we 
found.  These  examinations  were  made  in  accordance 
with  a  scheme  thoroughly  worked  out  by  Dr.  Adolf  Meyer, 
the  underlying  principles  of  which  were  the  teachings  of 
Kraepelin,  Wernicke  and  Ziehen.  This  good  work  has 
continued  up  to  the  present  with  excellent  results.     Since 

I  left  the  state  service  I  have  visited  and  worked  in  some 

7 


8  PREFACE 

of  the  best  psychiatric  clinics  in  Europe,  and  I  am  glad 
to  say  that  all  things  considered  the  work  of  the  New 
York  State  Hospitals  compares  very  favorably  with  the 
work  done  in  most  of  the  hospitals  abroad. 

What  I  say  in  reference  to  the  N.  Y.  State  hospitals 
can  be  readily  applied  with  some  modifications  to  most  of 
the  hospitals  for  the  insane  in  this  country.  It  is  well 
known  that  within  the  last  ten  to  twelve  years  the  manage- 
ment and  treatment  of  the  insane  in  this  country  have 
undergone  a  marked  transformation,  which  is  of  great 
benefit  to  the  patient,  the  doctor  and  the  public.  The 
State  hospitals  are  now  treating  the  patients  as  patients 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word;  they  are  rapidly  filling  up  an 
enormous  gap  in  the  medical  profession  by  training  doctors 
to  treat  the  insane,  and  they  are  gradually  abolishing 
the  popular  prejudices  against  hospitals  for  the  insane. 
The  medical  schools,  too,  are  now  paying  more  though  not 
enough  attention  to  mental  diseases;  and  last,  but  not 
least,  excellent  and  commendable  work  is  being  done  by 
the  Social  Service  Departments  and  the  National  Society 
for  Mental  Hygiene. 

The  progressive  evolution  in  the  study  of  mental  dis- 
eases has  called  attention  to  another  neglected  field  in 
which  the  most  important  work  is  still  to  be  done.  I 
refer  to  the  so-called  "borderline"  cases,  the  neuroses 
and  mild  psychoses  which  never  reach  the  State  hospitals, 
but  form  the  greatest  proportion  of  clinic  and  dispensary 
practice.  In  the  ten  years  from  1900-1909,  21,290  patients 
were  examined  by  the  assistants  in  the  neurological  depart- 
ment of  the  Vanderbilt  Clinic,  N.  Y.,  and  about  25%  of  this 
number  were  diagnosed  as  neurasthenia,   psychasthenia, 


PREFACE  9 

hysteria,  and  as  mild  forms  of  the  functional  psychoses.* 
Although  I  am  not  ready  to  give  statistics,  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  assert  that  the  same  conditions  prevail  in  almost  every 
clinic  and  dispensary.  A  striking  feature  in  these  border- 
line cases  is  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  run  a  chronic 
course.  Up  to  within  recent  years  no  real  effort  has  been 
made  to  understand  these  unfortunates.  It  is  gratifying 
to  note,  however,  that  a  complete  change  has  taken  place 
in  this  direction.  Physicians  now  realize  that  the  old 
adage  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano  is  not  to  be  taken  in  the 
strict  sense,  and  hence  do  not  rely  on  physical  treatment 
alone.  All  enlightened  and  progressive  physicians  recog- 
nize psychotherapy  as  an  important  therapeutic  agent  in 
the  treatment  of  these  borderline  cases  .of  mental  diseases. 
Now  as  there  is  a  demand  for  psychotherapy,  the  ques- 
tion naturally  arises  as  to  which  is  the  method  of  prefer- 
ence. Without  entering  into  the  merits  and  demerits  of 
the  different  systems  of  psychotherapy,  admitting  that  in 
competent  hands  they  are  all  good  and  useful,  and  that  I 
myself  employ  them  in  selected  cases,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  O 
assert  that  psychoanalysis  is  the  most  rational  and  effective 
method  of  psychic  therapy.  I  say  this  after  having  prac- 
tised for  years  the  existing  psychotherapeutic  methods. 
Psychoanalysis  is  the  only  system  of  psychotherapy 
that  deals  with  the  neuroses  as  entities  instead  of  treating 
symptoms,  as  do  hypnotism,  suggestion  and  persuasion. 
To  hypnotize  a  patient  because  he  suffers  from  obsessions 
or  phobias  is  equivalent  to  treating  the  cough  or  fever 
regardless  of  the  disease  of  which  it  is  but  one  of  the  mani-    ~^ 

*  Jelliffe  and  Brill :  Statistical  Summary  of  Cases  in  Department  of 
Neurology,  Vanderbilt  Clinic,  for  Ten  Years,  1900  to  1909,  Journal 
Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases,  July,  1911. 


[  10  PREFACE 

festations.  Hypnotism  takes  no  cognizance  of  personality, 
it  simply  imposes  blind  obedience  which  at  best  lasts 
until  worn  off.  Psychoanalysis  always  concerns  itseK  with 
the  individual  as  a  personality  and  enters  into  the  deepest 
recesses  of  the  mind.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  the  results 
of  psychoanalysis  are  most  effective;  and  it  is  only  through 
psychoanalysis  that  we  can  hope  to  gain  a  real  insight  into 
the  neuroses  and  psychoses,  a  thing  of  prime  importance 
in  the  study  of  mental  prophylaxis. 

These  assertions  are  not  based  merely  on  the  reading  of 
a  few  scattered  papers,  but  on  about  six  years  of  hard 
work  and  almost  constant  occupation  with  the  subject. 
For  it  is  only  through  hard  work  and  long  experience  that 
one  can  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Freud's  psychol- 
ogy. Recently  I  had  the  pleasure  of  talking  to  some 
who  claimed  to  have  used  psychoanalysis  in  the  treatment 
of  patients,  and  who  spoke  rather  discouragingly,  saying 
that  it  produced  no  result.  Thus  one  endeavored  to  cure 
a  case  of  so-called  congenital  homosexuality  in  about  a 
dozen  sessions.  Another  stated  that  although  he  ques- 
tioned a  young  woman  for  hours  about  sex  she  showed  no 
improvement  in  her  hysteria. 

Such  statements  readily  show  the  gross  misunderstand- 
ing of  the  work.  For  it  is  not  the  treatment  of  a  few 
hours,  weeks  or  even  months  that  cures;  it  is  the  psychic 
elaboration  accomplished  during  a  long  period  by  one 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  work.  I  do  not  think 
that  it  is  too  much  to  ask  of  one  who  wishes  to  make  use 
of  a  certain  technical  method  that  he  should  first  learn 
its  basic  principles.  One  cannot  expect  to  become 
proficient  in  psychoanalysis  unless  he  has  mastered  at  least 


PREFACE  11 

Freud's  theories  of  the  neuroses,  the  interpretation  of 
dreams,  the  theories  on  sex,  the  psychopathology  of  every- 
day Hfe,  and  his  book  on  wit,  and  last  but  not  least  nas 
had  a  training  in  nervous  and  mental  work.  Besides 
these  qualifications  one  must  know  how  to  select  his  cases. 
It  has  been  wrongly  supposed  that  we  claim  to  be  able 
to  cure  everything.  Neither  Freud  nor  any  of  his  pupils 
has  ever  advanced  such  claims.  On  the  contrary,  Freud 
has  repeatedly  emphasized  that  psychoanalysis  has  a  limited 
field,  and  that  it  should  be  used  only  in  limited  cases.  Let 
us  hear  what  he  says: 

"The  former  value  of  the  person  should  not  be  over- 
looked in  the  disease,  and  you  should  refuse  a  patient 
wjio  does  not  possess  a  certain  degree  of  education,  and 
whose  character  is  not  in  a  measure  reliable.  We  must 
not  forget  that  there  are  also  healthy  persons  who  are  good 
for  nothing,  and  that  if  they  show  a  mere  touch  of  the 
neurosis,  one  is  only  too  much  inclined  to  blame  the  dis- 
ease for  incapacitating  such  inferior  persons.  I  maintain 
that  the  neurosis  does  not  in  any  way  stamp  its  bearer  as 
a  degenere,  but  that,  frequently  enough,  it  is  found  in  the 
same  individual  associated  with  the  manifestations  of 
degeneration.  The  analytic  psychotherapy  is,  therefore, 
no  procedure  for  the  treatment  of  neuropathic  degenera- 
tion— on  the  contrary  it  is  limited  by  it.  It  is  also  not  to 
be  applied  in  persons  who  are  not  prompted  by  their  own 
suffering  to  seek  treatment,  but  subject  themselves  to  it 
by  order  of  their  relatives. 

''If  one  wishes  to  take  a  safe  course  he  should  limit  his 
selection  to  persons  of  a  normal  state.     Psychoses,  con-  O 
fusional  states,  and  marked  (I  might  say  toxic)  depres- 


12  PREFACE 

sions,  are  unsuitable  for  analysis,  at  least  as  it  is  practised 
to-day.  I  do  not  think  it  at  all  impossible  that  with  the 
proper  changes  in  the  procedure  it  will  be  possible  to  disre- 
gard this  contraindication,  and  thus  claim  a  psychotherapy 
for  the  psychoses. 

"The  age  of  the  patient  also  plays  a  part  in  the  selec- 
tion for  the  psychoanalytic  treatment.  Persons  near  or 
over  the  age  of  fifty  lack,  on  the  one  hand,  the  plasticity 
of  the  psychic  processes  upon  which  the  therapy  depends — 
old  people  are  no  longer  educable — and  on  the  other  hand, 
the  material  which  has  to  be  elaborated  and  the  duration  of 
the  treatment  are  immensely  increased.  The  earliest  age 
limit  is  to  be  individually  determined;  youthful  persons, 
even   before   puberty,  are  excellent  subjects  for  analysis. 

"One  should  not  attempt  psychoanalysis  when  it  is  a 
question  of  rapidly  removing  a  threatening  manifestation, 
as,  for  example,  in  the  case  of  an  hysterical  anorexia."* 

From  my  own  experience  I  fully  agree  with  Freud,  and 
I  would  add:  do  not  analyze  your  relatives,  and  when  in 
private  practice  do  not  analyze  any  patient  without 
receiving  some  compensation  for  it. 

As  the  actual  working  method  will  be  described  later, 
I  shall  confine  myself  here  to  a  few  facts,  which,  although 
strictly  speaking  belong  to  the  epilogue,  may  nevertheless 
be  worth  mentioning  in  this  connection.  With  the  begin- 
ning of  the  analysis  I  investigate  the  patient's  dream  life. 
I  instruct  him  to  write  down  his  dreams  on  awakening. 
This  is  very  important  because  dreams  give  us  the  most 
reliable  information  concerning  the  individual,  and  they 

*  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria  and  other  Psychoneuroses, 
2d  Ed.,  p.  181.    Trans,  by  A.  A.  Brill,  Jour.  Ner.  and  Men.  Dis.  Pub.  Co, 


PREFACE  13 

invariably  show  some  relation  to  the  symptoms.  I  never 
attempt,  however,  to  analyze  a  dream  before  knowing 
the  patient  for  at  least  two  weeks.  Dreams  cannot  be 
analyzed  unless  one  has  the  full  cooperation  of  the 
dreamer,  and  this  is  only  possible  after  a  certain  rapport 
has  been  established  between  the  doctor  and  the  patient. 
It  is  this  rapport,  or  the  transference*  as  we  will  call  it, 
with  which  one  must  start.  Nothing  can  be  done  without 
it,  and  unless  this  is  properly  managed  little  can  be  done 
for  the  patient.  One  may  get  excellent  results  in  surgery 
or  in  any  other  specialty  without  seeing  the  patient's  face, 
but  psychoanalysis  presupposes  an  intimate  acquaintance- 
ship. There  must  be  a  mutual  understanding  and  liking 
between  doctor  and  patient.  One  must,  however,  be  on 
his  guard  lest  the  transference  be  carried  too  far.  One 
must  remember  that  one  is  dealing  with  people  whose 
libido  is  striving  for  fixation,  and  care  and  tact  must  there- 
fore be  exercised  to  remain  good  friends  only.  One  must 
remember  the  intimate  relationship  existing  between  love 
and  hatred,  and  that  one  can  be  readily  changed  into  the 
other.  There  are  few  neurotics,  or  for  that  matter  normal 
beings,  who  remain  absolutely  indifferent.  They  either 
like  or  dislike.  In  one  of  his  essays,  Charles  Lamb  tells 
of  two  men  who  never  met  before  who  began  to  fight  as 
soon  as  they  looked  at  each  other.  This  sounds  very  strange 
to  us,  though  it  is  comprehensible  in  savages,  children 
and  animals.     As  is  known,  neurotics  are  dominated  by 

*  Freud:  Zur  Dynamik  der  Ubertragung,  Zentralb.  f.  Psycho- 
analyse, 2.  Jahrgang,  Heft  1  und  4.  Stekel:  Die  verschiedenen 
Formen  der  tJTsertragung,  Zentralb.  f.  Psychoanalyse,  2.  Jahrgang. 
Ferenczi:  Introjection  und  Ubertragung,  Jahrbuch  f.  Psychoanalyst. 
u.  Psychopath.,  1910,  Bd.  i,  p.  451.  Jones:  The  Action  of  Suggestion 
in  Psychotherapy,  Jour,  of  Abnormal  Psychol.,  January,  1910. 


14  PREFACE 

their  infantile  or  repressed  material,  they  suffer  from  a 
failure  in  repression;  hence  behave  in  a  way  like  children. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention  that  we  are  criticised 
for  delving  into  sexuality.  This  is  quite  true,  but  is  it  a 
question  wheter  it  merits  criticism.  Our  critics  seem 
to  have  no  conception  of  Freud's  idea  of  sexuality.  To 
us  the  term  is  very  broad,  it  really  comprises  the  whole 
love-life  of  the  individual.  As  soon  as  we  enter  into  the 
intimate  life  of  the  patient  we  are  sure  to  find  sex  in  some 
form,  indeed  the  surest  indication  of  an  abnormal  sexual  life 
is  an  apparent  absence  of  the  sexual  factors.  It  is  natur- 
ally advisable  to  be  very  careful  in  approaching  the  subject 
so  as  not  to  shock  the  patient.  Moreover,  psychoanalysis 
presupposes  a  knowledge  of  not  only  Freud's  theories  of 
sex,  but  also  a  broad  knowledge  of  psychosexuality  in 
general.  Only  those  who  are  themselves  free  from  all 
sexual  resistances  and  who  can  discuss  sex  in  a  pure- 
minded  manner  should  do  psychoanalytic  work. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  say  that  the  main  object  of  this 
book  is  to  present  the  practical  application  of  Freud's 
theories  in  one  volume,  hoping  thereby  not  only  to  remove 
many  false  conceptions  entertained  concerning  psycho- 
analysis, but  to  stimulate  further  interest  in  Freud's 
original  works. 

As  some  of  the  material  given  here  has  been  published 
before  in  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  the 
American  Journal  of  Insanity,  the  N.  Y.  Medical  Journal, 
the  Medical  Record,  and  the  N.  Y.  State  Journal  of  Medi- 
cine, I  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my  thanks  to  the 
editors  of  these  journals  for  allowing  me  to  utilize  the 
same.  A.  A.  Brill. 

New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  Paqb 

The  Psychoneuroses 17 

CHAPTER  II 

PSTCHOPATHOLOGT  OF  EvERY-DAY  LiPE 40 

CHAPTER  III 
Dreams 78 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Actual  Neuroses 127 

CHAPTER  V 
Masturbation 146 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Compulsion  Neuroses  (Obsessions,  Doubts,  Phobias)..  ,  163 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Unconscious  Factors  in  the  Neuroses 184 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Psychoanalysis  and  the  Psychoses 199 

CHAPTER  IX 
Studies  in  Paraphrenia  or  the  Milder  Psychotic  States.  . .  250 

CHAPTER  X 
Psychological  Mechanisms  op  Paranoia 270 

CHAPTER  XI 

Homosexuality 289 

15 


16  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII  Paqi. 

Htsterical  Fancies  and  Dreamy  States 310 

CHAPTER  XIII 
The  CEdipus  Complex 329 

CHAPTER  XIV 
The  Only  or  Favorite  Child  in  Adult  Life 348 

CHAPTER  XV 

Fairy  Tales  as  a  Determinant  op  Dreams  and  Neurotic 
Symptoms.  Their  Relation  to  Active  and  Passive 
Algolagnia 363 

CHAPTER  XVI 
Anal  Eroticism  and  Character 390 

CHAPTER  XVII 
Freud's  Theory  op  Wit 400 

Glossary 450 

Index 455 


PSYCHOANALYSIS 

ITS  THEORIES  AND  PRACTICAL 
APPLICATION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PSYCHONEUROSES 

The  Development  of  Freud's  Conception  of  the  Psycho- 
neuroses  and  Psychoses,  Their  Relation  to  the 
Psychology  of  Dreams,  Sex  and  the  Psy- 
chopathology  of  Every-day  Life 

The  psychoneuroses,  the  step-children  of  medicine,  have 
of  late  received  more  attention  in  medical  literature  than 
before.  Both  here  and  abroad  it  has  been  realized  that 
there  is  a  large  group  of  diseases,  the  so-called  border  line 
cases  in  mental  diseases,  the  understanding  and  treatment 
of  which  have  been  sadly  neglected,  and  it  is  gratifying 
to  know  that  at  least  some  steps  have  been  taken  to  meet 
these  deficiencies.  The  wave  of  psychotherapy  which  has 
swept  the  continent  has  also  made  its  presence  felt  in  this 
country  through  its  numerous  discussions  in  both  lay  and 
professional  journals.  Abroad  its  adherents  claim  brilliant 
results;  one  need  only  review  the  numerous  works  of  the 
Nancy  and  other  schools  to  be  convinced  that  psycho- 
therapy is  no  empty  term,  but  an  actual  branch  of  medi- 
2  17 


18  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

cine,  and  that  in  the  psychoneuroses  it  is  the  only  effective 
remedial  agent. 

Yet,  whereas  all  schools  agree  that  the  psychoneuroses 
should  be  treated  by  psychotherapy,  they  all  disagree  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  psychoneuroses.  One  need  only  scan 
the  recent  works  to  see  what  diverse  views  are  expressed 
by  the  different  investigators  on  the  subject.  These 
diversities,  in  my  opinion,  are  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  investigators  in  question  have  ignored  one  important 
factor,  namely,  individual  psychology.  Without  individ- 
ual psychology  the  riddle  of  the  neuroses,  like  the  riddle 
of  the  psychoses,  must  remain  unsolved. 

Among  the  different  views  expressed  on  the  neuroses 
those  of  Freud  stand  out  most  conspicuously.  No  recent 
theories  in  medicine  or  psychology  have  evoked  so  many 
controversies  and  discussions.  After  years  of  careful  and 
painstaking  labor  Freud  evolved  not  only  a  system  of 
psychotherapy,  but  a  new  psychology.  Unlike  all  other 
investigators  he  discarded  all  generahties  and  confined 
himself  to  the  individual.  The  individual  factors  which 
had  escaped  the  notice  of  other  investigators  he  found  to 
be  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  psychogenetic  devel- 
opment of  personality. 

As  early  as  1895  Breuer  and  Freud  published  the 
"Studien  iiber  Hysteric."  They  found  that  hysterical 
symptoms  like  neuralgias,  paralyses,  epileptiform  attacks, 
etc.,  could  be  traced  to  actual  psychic  traumata  which  the 
patient  could  not  consciously  recall,  but  which  could  be 
readily  demonstrated  when  the  patient  was  put  in  the 
hypnotic  state.  In  other  words,  they  found  that  the 
hysterical  manifestations  were  not  accidental,  but  had  an 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  19 

actual  cause.  The  connection  between  cause  and  effect 
was  often  quite  obvious;  thus,  "A  very  sick  child  falls 
asleep  and  the  mother  exerts  all  her  will  power  to  make  no 
noise  to  awaken  it,  but  just  because  of  this  effort  she 
emits  a  clicking  sound  with  her  tongue  (hysterical  counter- 
will)  which  was  repeated  on  another  occasion  when  she 
wished  to  be  absolutely  quiet.  This  developed  into  a  regu- 
lar tic  which  lasted  for  years.  "^  In  some  cases  the  connec- 
tion is  not  so  simple,  there  being  only  a  symbolic  relation 
between  the  cause  and  the  hysterical  phenomena;  thus, 
psychic  pain  may  cause  a  neuralgia  and  moral  disgust  may 
cause  vomiting.  Breuer  and  Freud  then  concluded  that 
these  psychic  traumata,  or  the  memory  of  them  act  like 
foreign  bodies  in  consciousness,  and  even  long  after  their 
occurrence  continue  to  influence  like  causative  factors.  To 
quote  Freud,  "The  hysteric  suffers  mostly  from  reminis- 
cences."^  Their  symptoms  are  remnants  and  memory 
symbols  for  certain  (traumatic)  events.  A  deeper  under- 
standing of  these  symbolisms  will  perhaps  be  gained  by 
comparing  them  with  memory  symbols  of  other  spheres. 
Thus  the  statues  and  monuments  with  which  we  embel- 
lish our  big  cities  are  such  memory  symbols.  ' '  If  you  should 
take  a  walk  through  London  you  would  find  a  richly 
decorated  Gothic  column  in  front  of  Charing  Cross,  one  of 
the  largest  railroad  stations  of  the  city.  On  the  occasion  of 
removing  to  Westminster  the  remains  of  his  beloved  queen, 
Eleanor,  one  of  the  old  Plantagenet  kings  in  the  XIII 
century  ordered  that  Gothic  crosses  be  erected  at  every 
station  where  the  funeral  procession  halted,  and  Charing 
Cross  is  the  last  of  the  monuments  commemorating  this 
funeral  procession.     In  another  place  in  the  city  not  far 


20  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

from  London  Bridge  you  will  notice  a  modern  lofty  column 
which  is  briefly  referred  to  as  'The  Monument.'  It  is 
supposed  to  commemorate  the  big  fire  which  started  near 
there  in  1666  and  destroyed  a  large  part  of  the  city.  These 
monuments,  therefore,  like  the  hysterical  symptoms,  are 
memory  symbols.  So  far  the  comparison  is  justified.  But 
what  would  you  think  of  a  Londoner  who  would  even  to-day 
halt  in  grief  before  the  monument  of  the  funeral  procession 
of  Queen  Eleanor  instead  of  continuing  on  his  way  with  the 
required  haste  of  modern  business  conditions?  Or  what 
would  you  think  of  another  who  would  stop  before  'The 
Monument'  and  bewail  the  conflagration  of  his  beloved 
native  city?  Yet  hysteric  and  neurotic  individuals  behave 
exactly  like  these  two  impractical  Londoners.  Not  only  do 
they  recall  the  long  forgotten  painful  events,  but  they  cling 
to  them  with  all  their  emotions.  They  cannot  get  away 
from  the  past  and  neglect  for  it  the  reality  of  the  present. 
This  fixation  of  the  psychic  life  on  the  pathogenic  traumas  is 
one  of  the  most  important,  and,  from  a  practical  view- 
point, one  of  the  most  significant  characters  of  the 
neurosis."^ 

That  the  hysterical  symptoms  are  only  reminiscences 
was  proven  by  the  fact  that  the  individual  hysterical 
symptoms  disappeared  without  returning  if  one  succeeded 
in  thoroughly  awakening  the  memories  of  the  causal 
process  with  its  accompanying  affects  and  if  the  patient 
circumstantially  discussed  the  process,  giving  free  play  to 
the  affect.  The  reason  for  the  strangulation  of  the  emo- 
tion was  because  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence  it  could 
not  be  adequately  worked  off.  We  all  know  that  it 
is  not  always  possible  to  give  vent  to  our  feelings,  and  that 


THE    PSYCHONEUROSES  21 

an  insult  retaliated  leaves  quite  a  different  impression  than 
one  that  has  to  be  swallowed. 

The  treatment  called  "catharsis"  consisted  in  recon- 
ducting the  sum  of  excitement  from  its  false  paths  to  the 
original  conscious  idea  and  then  working  it  off  by  means  of 
intellectual  labor  and  speech.  The  patient  was  hypnotized 
and  questioned  about  the  origin  of  the  symptoms  and 
while  recalling  the  original  injuries,  either  in  hypnosis  or 
the  normal  state  the  hemmed-in  emotions  were  discharged 
and  the  symptoms  disappeared.  This  is  the  so-called 
"abreagirung" — ahreaction — which  means  to  work  off  some- 
thing by  living  through  it  again.  It  was  noticed  that  the 
affect  appeared  with  special  intensity  during  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  scenes  which  gave  origin  to  the  symptom 
and  completely  disappeared  with  their  termination. 
On  the  other  hand,  no  result  was  noticed  when  the 
scenes  evoked  were  not  accompanied  by  any  emotional 
feeling. 

This  is  rather  a  brief  review  of  the  conceptions 
originally  expressed  by  Breuer  and  Freud.  It  is  from 
these  principles  that  Freud  developed  his  present 
conceptions  of  the  psychoneuroses  and  his  revolutionary 
psychology. 

When  Freud  continued  to  practice  his  cathartic  treat- 
ment he  was  confronted  with  one  special  difficulty.  He 
found  that  not  all  persons  were  hypnotizable  and  as 
hypnosis  was  absolutely  essential  for  the  broadening  of 
the  patient's  consciousness,  many  patients  had  to  be  given 
up  as  they  could  not  be  hypnotized.  He  even  went  so 
far  as  to  take  one  of  these  patients  to  Bernheim,  at  Nancy, 
but  after  applying  all  his  skill  Bernheim  had  to  admit  that 


22  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

he,  too,  could  not  hypnotize  the  patient.  *  This  and  a  num- 
ber of  other  reasons  caused  Freud  to  avoid  hypnotism  and 
to  adopt  a  new  procedure  which  he  calls  the  psychoanalytic 
method. 

On  asking  the  patients  in  the  waking  state  whether  they 
remembered  the  first  motive  of  the  symptom  in  question, 
some  knew  nothing  while  others  recalled  something  rather 
vaguely.  Freud  then  applied  the  same  method  which 
Bernheim  used  in  awaking  the  manifestly  forgotten  impres- 
sions produced  during  somnambulism.  He  found  that 
by  urging  and  assuring  the  patients  that  they  did  remember 
and  telling  them  that  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  concentrate 
their  attention  and  repeat  the  thoughts  which  would  occur 
to  them  they  finally  recalled  the  pathogenic  ideas  without 
hypnotism.  But  as  this  urging  necessitated  much  exertion 
on  his  part,  and  showed  him  that  he  had  to  overcome  great 
resistance  in  the  patient,  he  formulated  the  following  theory : 
"Through  my  psychic  work  I  had  to  overcome  a  psychic 
force  in  the  patient  which  hindered  the  pathogenic  idea 
from  becoming  conscious."'*  The  resistance  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  ideas  which  had  to  be  disinterred  were  all  of  a 
nature  adapted  to  provoke  the  affects  of  shame,  reproach, 
mental  pain  and  a  feeling  of  injury — they  were  altogether 
of  that  kind  which  one  would  not  like  to  experience,  and 
prefers  to  forget. 

This  gave  rise  to  Freud's  idea  of  repression;  the  patho- 
genic idea  being  of  a  painful  nature  is  incompatible  with 
the  ego,  and  is  therefore  treated  by  it  as  non-arrive.  The 
patient    wishes    to    know   nothing    about   it,    he    wishes 

*  That  not  every  person  can  be  hypnotized  has  been  long  acknow- 
ledged by  all  e.-perienced  observers  in  this  field. 


THE    PSYCHONEUROSES  23 

to  forget  it.  But  as  this  repression,  or  fogetting,  never 
succeeds  completely,  the  pathogenic  idea  continues  to 
strive  to  come  to  the  surface,  and  is  constantly  inhibited 
by  the  psychic  censor.  This  struggle  of  the  two  opposing 
forces  results  in  a  compromise.  Each  foregoes  a  part  of 
the  original  demand,  thus  meeting  the  other  half  way, 
and  the  result  of  this  mutual  accommodation  is  then  trans- 
formed into  a  hysterical  symptom,  usually  by  the  process 
of  conversion.  In  this  manner  the  ego  frees  itself  from 
opposition,  the  original  painful  idea  or  unattainable  wish  is 
forgotten,  and  instead  it  becomes  burdened  with  a  memory 
symbol  which  remains  in  consciousness  as  an  unadjusted 
motor  or  sensory  innervation.  We  thus  see  that  the  main 
character  of  hysteria  is  not  the  spHtting  of  consciousness 
as  asserted  by  Janet  and  his  school,  but  the  abihty  to  con- 
vert the  sum  of  strangulated  emotion  either  totally  or 
partially,  into  that  motor  or  sensory  innervation  which 
is  more  or  less  connected  with  the  traumatic  event.  In 
brief  the  study  of  the  psychoneuroses  shows  conclusively 
that  there  was  a  failure  in  the  repression  of  the  idea  con- 
cerning the  unattainable  wish.  To  be  sure  the  painful 
idea  is  crowded  out  of  consciousness  and  memory,  and  the 
individual  thus  spares  himself  a  great  deal  of  pain,  but  the 
repressed  wish  remains  in  the  unconscious  and  lurks  for  an 
opportunity  to  become  active.  When  it  succeeds  it  brings 
to  the  surface  a  distorted  and  strange  substitutive  forma- 
tion which  soon  becomes  connected  with  the  same  pain  the 
individual  got  rid  of  through  the  repression.  This  sub- 
stitutive formation  is  the  symptom  and  in  hysteria  it  is 
produced  by  the  process  of  conversion. 

There  are,  however,  predisposed  persons  in  whom  there 


24  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

is  no  adaptation  for  conversion.  Here,  if  an  unbearable 
idea  enters  consciousness  it  meets  with  the  same  contrary 
forces  as  those  mentioned  above,  the  affect  becomes  de- 
tached from  the  idea,  but  instead  of  being  converted  into 
the  physical,  it  remains  in  the  psychic  sphere.  The  weak- 
ened unbearable  idea  remains  apart  from  all  association  in 
consciousness,  but  its  detached  affect  or  the  sum  of  excite- 
ment allies  itself  to  another  indifferent  idea,^  which  on 
account  of  this  "false"  connection  becomes  an  obsession; 
or  the  unbearable  idea  is  so  changed  that  the  patient  does 
not  recognize  it.  He  no  longer  thinks  of  the  painful  or 
disagreeable,  but  instead  he  is  burdened  with  an  obsession, 
the  absurdity  of  which  he  realizes,  but  from  which  he  can- 
not rid  himself.  The  advantage  thus  gained  by  the  ego 
in  the  transposition  or  dislocation  of  the  affect  is  not  as 
great  as  in  the  hysterical  conversion  of  psychic  excite- 
ment into  somatic  innervation.  The  affect  remains  un- 
changed and  undiminished,  but  the  unbearable  idea  is 
suppressed  from  memory. 

The  same  mechanism  holds  true  for  the  origin  of  phobias, 
and  both  come  under  the  heading  of  compulsion  neurosis. 
It  was  found  that  the  unbearable  ideas  underlying  the 
compulsion  neurosis  (obsessions,  doubts  and  phobias), 
also  have  their  origin  in  the  sexual  life.  In  the  words  of 
Freud,  "the  obsession  represents  a  compensation  or  sub- 
stitute for  the  unbearable  sexual  idea  and  takes  its  place 
in  consciousness."^ 

Both  hysteria  and  compulsion  neurosis  belong  to  the  de- 
fense neuropsychoses;  their  symptoms  originate  through  the 
psychic  mechanism  of  defense,  that  is,  through  the  attempt 
to  repress  a  painful  idea  which  was  incompatible  with  the 


THE    PSYCHONEUROSES  25 

ego  of  the  patient.  In  both  neuroses  the  idea  is  robbed  of 
its  affect,  and  excluded  from  associative  elaboration,  re- 
maining, however,  in  consciousness. 

There  is  still  another  far  more  forceful  and  more  suc- 
cessful form  of  defense,  wherein  the  ego  misplaces  the 
incompatible  idea  with  its  emotion  and  acts  as  though 
the  painful  idea  had  never  come  to  pass.  When  this 
occurs  the  person  merges  into  a  psychosis  which  may  be 
called  "hallucinatory  confusion."  To  illustrate  this  form 
of  defense  I  will  cite  a  case  which,  through  the  kindness  of 
Dr.  M.  S.  Gregory,  I  saw  in  the  psychopathic  pavilion 
of  Bellevue  Hospital.  It  concerned  a  young  married 
man  of  about  thirty  years,  a  New  Yorker,  who,  being 
out  of  work,  tried  his  fortune  as  a  farm-hand  up  the  state. 
Things  did  not  go  as  smoothly  as  he  expected,  and  one  day 
the  farmer  gave  him  a  rather  severe  thrashing,  and  dis- 
missed him  without  paying  him  his  salary.  He  sought 
redress,  but  could  get  none  so  that  he  had  to  walk  to  New 
York  City  penniless.  When  he  returned  home  he  made  a 
number  of  attempts  to  obtain  justice  for  himself,  but  was 
told  that  he  could  do  nothing.  He  kept  on  brooding  over 
it  for  some  time,  when  one  day  he  suddenly  became  excited 
and  confused.  He  became  boisterous,  cursing  the  farmer, 
and  accompanied  his  utterances  by  violently  kicking  the 
bedstead  and  the  pillows.  He  imagined  that  he  was 
punching  the  farmer.  He  was  so  excited  and  confused 
that  his  wife  sent  for  the  police  who  took  him  to  the  psycho- 
pathic pavilion  of  Bellevue  Hospital. 

Here  the  idea  was  so  painful  that  the  individual  was 
unable  to.  resign  himself  to  it,  and  in  the  tremendous  effort 
to  retaliate  the  ego  tore  itself  away  from  actuality,  but  as 


26  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  painful  idea  was  inseparably  connected  with  reality 
the  ego  had  to  exclude  itself  wholly  from  it  and  resort  to 
hallucinations.  Such  cases  give  us  an  insight  into  the 
nature  of  psychoses.  Thanks  to  the  genius  of  Freud  and  the 
Zurich  schooF  stimulated  by  Bleuler  we  no  longer  fear  to 
face  the  hitherto  considered  perplexities  of  the  insane  mind. 
As  will  be  shown  later  every  insane  utterance,  every  morbid 
perception,  has  a  definite  meaning  and  a  definite  raison 
d'etre  when  analyzed.  Truly  there  is  method  in 
madness. 

In  tracing  the  psychic  traumas  which  are  supposed  to 
be  at  the  basis  of  hysterical  symptoms  or  compulsion 
neuroses,  one  invariably  comes  to  sexual  experiences  of 
childhood.  This  is  so  conspicuous  that  it  led  Freud  to  lay 
great  stress  on  the  sexual  impulse  and  to  formulate  the 
following  sentence:  "In  a  normal  vita  sexualis  no  neurosis  is 
possible."^  This,  I  know,  sounds  rather  strange,  but  I 
would  Hke  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  sexual 
impulse  is  one  of  our  strongest  impulses.  It  is  the  one 
impulse  that  must  be  subjected  to  the  greatest  amount  of 
repression  and  for  that  reason  it  has  always  been  the 
weakest  point  in  our  cultural  development.  It  must 
also  be  borne  in  mind  that  Freud's  conception  of  sex 
is  very  broad.  It  is  just  as  broad  as  our  English  word 
"love"  or  the  Greek  word  "eros,"  and  does  not  at  all  limit 
itself  to  gross  sexuality.  Moreover,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  sexuality  is  more  complicated  than  one  thinks. 
Hypocrisy  and  prudishness  have  from  time  immemorial 
tabooed  all  things  sexual;  the  word  itself  carries  with  it 
the  ideas  of  lewdness  and  loathing.  As  a  result  of  this 
the  ignorance  displayed  in   matters   sexual  is   appalling. 


THE    PSYCHONEUROSES  27 

That  accounts  for  the  righteous  indignation  evinced  by  so 
many  physicians,  especially  of  the  older  schools  who  never 
had  any  instruction  in  sex  except  in  the  treatment  of 
venereal  diseases.  They  do  not  realize  that  the  vast  field 
of  psychosexuality  which  is  surely  as  important  as  the 
somatic  parts  of  sex,  is  absolutely  unknown  to  them. 
What  does  the  average  laymen  or  physician  know  about  the 
problems  of  masturbation,  homosexuality  and  the  other 
perversions?  Nothing  worth  while.  He  knows  just  as 
little  about  the  normal  psychosexual  development  which 
can  easily  change  into  abnormal  sex.  Whatever  is,  has  a 
reason  and  it  is  the  duty  of  every  scientific  worker  to  view 
the  cold  facts  honestly  and  fearlessly.  Much  unhappiness 
and  misery  would  be  eradicated  if  we  would  not  leave  the 
poor  sexually  distressed  victims  to  charlatans  and  quacks 
who  add  to  their  misery  and  often  drive  them  to  suicide. 
Thus  we  are  led  to  believe  that  there  is  no  sexuality  be- 
fore a  certain  age,  the  age  of  puberty,  yet  when  we  look 
back  to  our  own  youth  we  find  that  long  before  that  age 
we  were  subjected  to  certain  feelings  which  were  unmistak- 
ably of  a  sexual  nature.  Freud  maintains  that  sex  is 
born  with  us,  that  it  manifests  itself  in  infancy,  and  that 
its  development  shows  three  distinct  divisions,  an  infantile, 
a  latency  and  an  adolescent  period.  "It  seems  certain," 
he  says,"  "that  the  newborn  child  brings  with  it  the  germs 
of  sexual  feelings  which  continue  to  develop  for  some  time 
and  then  succumb  to  a  progressive  suppression,  which  is, 
in  turn,  broken  through  by  the  proper  advance  of  sexual 
development  and  which  can  be  checked  by  individual 
idiosyncrasies."^  He  also  tells  us  that  the  sexual  impulse 
in  man  consists  of  many  components  and  partial  impulses, 


28  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

and  that  many  essential  contributions  to  the  sexual  excite- 
ment are  furnished  by  the  peripheral  excitement  of  certain 
parts  of  the  body,  such  as  the  genitals,  mouth,  anus  and 
bladder  outlets.  All  these  so-called  erogenous  zones  are 
active  in  infancy  but  only  some  of  them  go  to  make  up  the 
sexual  life.  The  first  libidinous  manifestations  are  of  an 
autoerotic  character,  and  the  sexual  manifestations  dis- 
played by  the  child  are  the  almost  universal  infantile  mas- 
turbation which  serves  to  prepare  the  genitals  for  their 
future  functions;  thumbsucking,  according  to  many 
observers,  connects  directly  or  indirectly  with  autoerotic 
sexual  activities.^"  I  have  studied  a  number  of  patients 
who  retained  this  autoerotic  sexual  manifestation  until 
late  in  life  and  I  could  definitely  ascertain  that  it  was  a 
sexual  activity  pure  and  simple.  In  a  number  of  cases 
thumbsucking  continued  until  masturbation  started  and 
in  a  few  cases  both  were  practised  together.  I  know  a 
young  widow  of  thirty-five  years  who,  in  spite  of  all  efforts 
to  break  herself  of  the  habit,  sucked  her  thumb  until  she 
married  at  twenty-five  years  and  resumed  it  with  the  be- 
ginning of  her  widowhood.  She  told  me  she  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  stopping  it  soon  after  marriage,  but  that  it  returned 
a  few  weeks  after  her  husband's  death.  Another  apparently 
normal  woman  who  sucked  her  thumb  until  a  few  months 
after  marriage  returned  to  it  eleven  years  later  when  her 
husband  became  impotent.  I  have  recently  seen  an  old 
man  of  74  years  who  suffered  from  senile  dementia  and 
was  also  aphasic.  His  memory  for  recent  events  as  well 
as  his  impressibility  were  almost  gone  but  his  past  reminis- 
cences which  he  reproduced  in  characteristic  senile  way 
were  erotically  tinged.     He  v/a,s  very  childish  in  his  emo- 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  29 

tional  output  and  almost  constantly  sucked  his  thumb 
when  left  to  himself.     His  children  aptly  designated  this  ^ 
action  as  a  return  to  his  second  childhood. 

The  anus  and  the  bladder  outlets  are  also  erogenous 
zones  of  infantile  life,  and  neurotics  often  retain  them  as 
such  in  later  life.'^  Thus  Z.,  twenty  years  old,  had  an 
uncontrollable  desire  to  withhold  his  urine.  He  stated 
that  there  was  much  pleasure  in  the  discomfort  and  that 
that  was  the  reason  for  indulging  in  it.  His  mother  told 
me  that  he  wet  the  bed  to  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  that  as  a 
child  he  would  remain  on  the  chamber  for  hours  before  he 
could  be  made  to  move  his  bowels. 

The  autoerotic  sexual  manifestations  gradually  disappear 
in  the  normal  individual,  and  the  growing  child  must  more 
and  more  depend  on  the  outside  world  for  his  pleasureable 
outlets.  At  the  age  of  puberty  he  consciously  demands  a 
love  object. 

Besides  the  manifestations  evinced  through  the  erogenous 
zones  the  child  shows  those  components  which  are  desig- 
nated as  partial  impulses.  Among  these  we  have  the 
impulse  for  looking,  touching,  showing  off,  and  for  cruelty 
which  manifest  themselves  somewhat  independently  of  the 
erogenous  zones  and  later  enter  into  intimate  relationship 
with  the  sexual  life;  but  along  with  the  erogenous  sexual 
activity  they  are  noticeable  even  in  the  infantile  years  as 
separate  and  independent  strivings.  In  later  life  the 
infantile  sexual  manifestations  are  repressed  and  sub- 
jected to  the  primacy  of  the  genitals  which  serve  the 
functions  of  procreation.  Most  of  the  energies  emanating 
from  them  are  then  deflected  from  the  sexual  and  directed 
to  important  social  aims.     This  is  the  so-called  process  of 


30  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

sublimation.  Thus,  sublimation  of  the  homosexual  com- 
ponent gives  origin  to  the  psychic  process  of  loathing  and 
morality;  the  sublimation  of  the  infantile  sexual  curiosity 
and  exhibitionism  gives  rise  to  shame,  and  the  sublimation 
of  the  sadistic  and  masochistic  components  to  pity,  disgust, 
and  similar  feehngs.  These  reactions  formed  during 
the  sexual  latency  period — from  the  fourth  year  to  the 
beginning  of  puberty,  eleven — make  up  the  character  of 
the  person  and  later  give  us  a  good  indication  of  his  early 
sexual  life.  I  regret  that  I  am  unable  to  discuss  here 
more  fully  the  sexual  theories  expounded  by  Freud;  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  subject  should  study  his  interest- 
ing and  profound  book,  "Three  Contributions  to  the 
Theory  of  Sex."  I  will  merely  add  that  after  carefully 
studying  sexual  development  in  its  relation  to  normal  and 
neurotic  individuals,  Freud  concluded  that  the  constitu- 
tional sexual  predisposition  of  the  child  is  "  polymorphous- 
perverse"  in  our  sense,  and  that  from  this  constitution  the 
so-called  normal  behavior  of  the  sexual  function  results 
through  a  repression  of  certain  components.  The  child 
has  no  conception  of  moral  or  esthetic  feelings,  and  it  is 
only  after  the  primitive  impulses  are  repressed  that  the 
normal  being  evolves.  By  referring  to  the  infantile  char- 
acter of  sexuaUty  one  can  note  the  relation  between  normal 
sexuaHty,  perversions,  and  neuroses.  Normal  sexuality 
results  through  the  repression  of  certain  partial  impulses 
and  components  of  the  infantile  predisposition  and  through 
a  subordination  of  the  rest  under  the  primacy  of  the  genital 
zones.  Thus  a  normal  adult  can  obtain  pleasure  through 
looking  and  touching  but  these  acts  are  quite  different  from 
similar  acts  observed  in  children  who  have  not  yet  been 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  31 

subjected  to  the  force  of  civilization.  The  perversions 
correspond  to  disturbances  of  this  relationship  due  to  a 
superior  compulsive-like  development  of  some  of  the  partial 
impulses,  as  when  the  normal  sexual  curiosity  develops 
into  the  voyeur,  while  the  neuroses  can  be  traced  to  a 
marked  repression  of  the  hbidinous  strivings.  However, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  symptoms  do  not  by  any 
means  result  only  at  the  expense  of  the  so-called  normal 
sexual  impulse  (at  least,  not  exclusively  or  preponderately), 
but  they  represent  the  converted  expression  of  impulses 
which  might  be  designated  as  perverse  if  they  could  mani- 
fest themselves  directly  in  phantasies  and  acts  without 
deviating  from  consciousness.  The  symptoms  are,  there- 
fore, partially  formed  at  the  cost  of  abnormal  sexuality. 
"The  neurosis  is,  so  to  say,  the  negative  of  the  perversion."^* 
Thus  the  constant  sufferer  from  hysterical  disturbances 
of  hearing  may  have  repressed  a  strong  sex  pleasure  ob- 
tained formerly  through  his  sense  of  hearing. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  congenital  variation  in  the  sexual 
constitution  of  persons,  the  existence  of  which  can  naturally 
be  established  only  through  its  later  manifestations.  It 
manifests  itself  in  a  preponderance  of  one  or  another  of  the 
manifold  sources  of  the  sexual  feehng  and  it  must  always 
come  to  expression  in  the  final  result  even  if  it  should 
remain  within  normal  limits.  To  be  sure,  certain  varia- 
tions of  the  original  disposition  even  without  further  aid 
must  necessarily  lead  to  the  formation  of  an  abnormal 
sexual  life.  This  may  be  called  "degenerative"  and 
considered  as  an  expression  of  hereditary  deterioration. 
In  this  connection  Freud  states  that  in  more  than  half 
of  the  severe  cases  of  hysteria,  compulsion  neuroses,  etc., 


32  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

treated  by  him  by  psychotherapy  he  positively  succeeded 
in  demonstrating  syphilis  in  their  fathers  before  marriage. 
The  patients  showed  absolutely  no  sign  of  hereditary 
lues,  so  that  the  abnormal  sexual  constitution  was  to  be 
considered  as  the  last  off-shoot  of  the  luetic  heredity. 
In  my  own  cases  I  found  even  less  than  a  third  in  which 
syphilis  could  be  demonstrated  in  parents. 

If  in  the  course  of  development  certain  strong  com- 
ponents experience  a  repression  the  following  result  takes 
place:  the  sexual  excitations  are  produced  as  usual,  but 
are  prevented  from  attaining  their  aim  by  psychic  hin- 
drances and  are  driven  off  into  many  other  paths  until 
they  express  themselves  in  symptoms.  The  sexual  life 
of  such  persons  begins  like  that  of  perverts.  A  consider- 
able part  of  their  childhood  is  filled  up  with  what  one  would 
call  later,  perverse  sexual  activity  which  occasionally 
extends  far  beyond  the  period  of  maturity,  and  then  for 
some  inner  reasons  a  repressive  change  results  before  or 
after  puberty  and  henceforth  there  appears  a  neurosis 
instead  of  a  perversion.  And,  confining  ourselves  for  the 
present  to  hysteria,  it  may  be  said  that  hysteria  is  the  result 
of  a  conflict  between  the  libido  and  the  sexual  repression, 
and  that  the  hysterical  symptoms  ho^ve  the  value  of  a  com- 
promise between  both  psychic  streams.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  it  is  the  mental  conflict  which  is  the  essential 
causative  factor  and  not  the  sexual  factor  as  such.  The 
resultant  compromise  of  such  conflict  generally  causes 
the  sexual  wishes  to  be  consciously  rejected  and  uncon- 
sciously accepted.  The  wish  is  then  repressed,  but  the  sum 
of  excitement  finds  its  way  into  bodily  innervation  and 
forms  the  hysterical  symptom. 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  33 

Let  me  cite  an  example: 

A  married  woman  of  forty-nine  years  who  suffered  from  hysteria 
for  more  than  twenty-two  years  showed  as  one  of  her  symptoms  a 
very  painful  contracted  and  paralyzed  right  arm  which  had  been  so 
for  more  than  three  years.  The  muscles  of  the  arm  and  shoulder 
region  were  completely  anesthetic  and  deep  needle  pricks  were  not 
perceived,  but  the  sUghtest  attempt  to  straighten  out  the  member 
was  most  painful.  Indeed  the  pain  was  the  chief  symptom. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  give  here  the  fuU  analysis 
of  the  symptom.  I  will  merely  mention  some  of  the  psychic 
constellations. 

Due  to  a  number  of  sexual  traumas  sustained  in  childhood  all  sexual 
feelings  were  repressed  and,  as  a  result,  she  was  totally  frigid  when  she 
was  married.  Indeed,  coitus  was  both  painful  and  disgusting  to  her. 
This  produced  marked  marital  unhappiness.  Her  husband  failed  to 
understand  her  condition,  and  what  made  matters  worse  was  the 
fact  that  he  found  her  masturbating  in  her  sleep.  When  he  first 
noticed  it  he  was  very  indignant  and  tried  to  call  her  to  account  for  it, 
but  she  continued  to  sleep;  he  tried  to  arouse  her,  but  she  did  not 
respond.  He  thought  at  first  that  she  was  shamming,  but  finally 
concluded  that  "she  had  a  fit"  and  reported  the  matter  to  the  family 
physician.  This  somnambuUstic  state  during  which  she  masturbated 
was  repeated  on  an  average  of  five  to  six  times  a  week.  There  was 
complete  amnesia  for  this  action.  She  at  first  refused  to  beheve  it, 
but  she  was  finally  convinced  of  it  by  her  own  sister,  who  saw  her  mas- 
turbate on  the  occasion  of  sleeping  with  her.  She  then  sought  the  aid 
of  a  physician  who  gave  her  large  doses  of  bromide  and  advised  her  to 
wear  a  sock  over  her  hand  and  firmly  tie  her  arm  in  complete  flexion. 
While  she  was  being  treated  for  her  masturbation  it  was  reported  to 
her  that  her  husband  carried  on  some  illicit  relations  with  one  of  the 
girls  she  employed.  She  absolutely  refused  to  believe  this,  and  no 
amount  of  urging  on  the  part  of  her  husband's  own  relatives  could 
induce  her  to  dismiss  this  girl.  The  latter  was  the  daughter  of  a  very 
poor  woman,  and  it  was  out  of  compassion  that  she  took  her  into  her 
millinery  estabhshment  and  taught  her  the  profession.  This  state  of 
affairs  continued  for  months.  She  was  extremely  jealous,  yet  her 
pride  would  not  allow  her  to  take  any  action  in  the  matter.  It  was 
after  a  quarrel  about  some  other  matters,  during  which  her  husband 


34  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

grasped  her  by  the  right  arm,  that  it  became  painful  and  developed 
into  the  condition  noted  above.  As  she  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the 
millinery  establishment  the  business  had  to  be  given  up,  as  she  was 
totally  incapacitated  by  her  malady. 

Here  we  see  the  conflict  was  between  the  Hbido  and  the 
repression.  The  repressed  sexual  feehngs  made  her  con- 
sciously frigid,  but  unconsciously  passionate.  When 
her  masturbation  was  brought  to  her  consciousness  she 
took  all  the  precautions  to  stop  it,  but  as  usual  she  was 
unsuccessful.  Her  husband's  faithlessness  gave  rise 
to  another  conflict.  Her  pride  gained  the  upper  hand 
and  she  absolutely  refused  to  believe  what  everyone  else 
saw  and  what  she  herself  could  not  fail  to  see.  When 
her  husband  grasped  her  by  this  arm,  which  was  the 
cause  of  so  much  mental  pain — it  was  the  one  with  which 
she  masturbated — the  conversion  took  place.  The  symp- 
tom, as  Freud  puts  it,  was  the  result  of  a  compromise 
between  two  opposing  affects,  one  of  which  strove  to 
bring  to  a  realization  a  partial  impulse  or  a  component 
of  the  sexual  constitution,  while  the  other  strove  to  sup- 
press it.^'  This  symptom,  as  we  see,  served  a  double 
purpose.  It  stopped  the  masturbation  and  incapacitated 
her  to  such  an  extent  that  her  business  had  to  be  given 
up  and  the  girl  who  caused  her  so  many  pangs  had  to  go. 
The  pain  was  also  the  punishment  for  the  underlying 
sexual  desire.  She  never  masturbated  with  her  left  hand, 
nor  has  she  ever  been  seen  masturbating  since  she  was 
cured  by  psychoanalysis. 

In  analyzing  neurotic  symptoms  Freud  found  that  the 
dream  played  a  great  part  in  the  individual's  life.  This 
gave  origin  to  the  epoch-making  book,  "The  Interpretation 


I 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  35 

of  Dreams."*  The  dream  is  not  at  all  absurd  and  sense- 
less, but  has  a  definite  meaning  when  analyzed,  and  in 
the  experienced  hand  it  is  the  most  valuable  instrument 
for  penetrating  the  mind.  In  the  neurotic  patient  the 
subject  of  his  dream  often  refers  to  the  origin  of  the  neurosis, 
i.e.,  to  the  repressed  material,  but  because  of  the  many- 
distortions  and  transformations  only  few  and  hidden 
associations  show  allusions  to  the  repressed  experience. 
Psychoanalysis  explains  the  different  components  of 
the  dream  and  thus  reveals  the  repressed  ideas  which 
are  at  the  basis  of  the  neurosis.  The  dream  is  divided 
into  manifest  and  latent  thoughts.  The  former  are 
remembered  by  the  dreamer  on  awakening,  while  the 
latter  represent  the  thoughts  of  the  dream  before  they 
were  subjected  to  the  distortion.  When  the  translation 
is  complete  we  find  that  the  latent  thoughts  of  the  dream 
contain  the  fulfilment  of  a  repressed  wish.^*  The  same 
holds  true  of  psychoneurotic  symptoms.  In  the  words 
of  Freud,  "The  hysterical  symptom,  like  all  other  psychic 
formations,  is  the  expression  of  a  wish  fulfilment.  "^^ 

In  the  same  way  the  repression  continues  to  evince 
itself  in  normal  conscious  life;  in  other  words,  the  wish 
fulfilment  normally  manifests  itself  during  the  waking 
state  just  as  it  does  in  the  dream  and  in  the  neurotic 
symptoms.  This  can  be  seen  readily  if  we  analyze  the 
abnormal  or  the  so-called  accidental  actions  of  every-day 
life.  In  his  very  interesting  and  instructive  book,  "  Psycho- 
pathology  of  Every  Day  Life,"^*'  Freud  shows  that  mere 
lapses  of  memory,  speech  and  writing,  as  well  as  the  com- 

*Translated  by  A.  A.  Brill.  George  Allen,  London,  and  the  Mac- 
nullan  Co.,  New  York. 


36-  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

mon  mistakes,  are  not  at  all  accidental,  but  when  analyzed 
have  a  reason.  Thus,  the  forgetting  of  a  name  which  we 
have  once  known  implies  that  either  directly  or  indirectly 
there  is  something  painful  or  disagreeable  connected  with  it. 
A  mistake  in  talking  usually  reveals  the  speaker's  real  mean- 
ing. In  other  words,  the  repression  influences  our  waking 
state  just  as  it  does  the  dream  and  the  psychoneurotic 
symptoms.  Just  like  the  latent  thought  of  the  dream,  the 
psychoneurotic  symptom  represents  a  fulfilled  wish,  and 
both  the  dream  and  the  neurosis  seem  incomprehensible 
until  explained  by  psychoanalysis.  To  illustrate  how 
complex  some  of  these  mechanisms  are  I  will  cite  a  brief 
analysis  of  an  obsession. 

One  of  my  patients,  a  young  man  twenty-six  years  old,  suffered  from 
a  typical  compulsion  neurosis,  the  main  symptom  being  an  obsessive 
action  which  consisted  in  a  rapid  upward  movement  of  his  arms,  as 
though  holding  back  or  pushing  up  something.  This  action  became 
very  annoying  to  him  and  his  family.  He  was  often  compelled  to  do 
it  in  pubhc,  and  it  interfered  with  his  work  as  a  diamond  cutter.  Be- 
fore proceeding  with  the  analysis  I  will  mention  something  concerning 
the  technique. 

On  analyzing  psychoneurotic  symptoms  the  patient  is 
required  to  lie  on  his  back  on  a  lounge  and  the  physician 
sits  behind  the  patient's  head  at  the  head  of  the  lounge. 
The  object  of  this  position  is  to  avoid  all  muscular  exertion 
and  distraction,  thus  allowing  a  thorough  concentration 
of  attention  on  the  patient's  own  psychic  activities.  We 
then  ask  the  patient  to  tell  all  he  knows  of  the  symptom 
and  we  usually  find  a  number  of  memory  gaps.  These 
he  is  urged  to  fill  in  by  concentration  of  attention  on  the 
subject  and  by  repeating  all  thoughts  originating  in  this 
connection.     Before    proceeding    we    must   have    the    pa- 


THE   PSYCHONEUROSES  37 

tient's  promise  that  he  will  frankly  repeat  to  us  all  the 
thoughts  occurring  to  him  in  the  order  of  their  sequence, 
even  thoughts  that  are  unimportant,  painful  or  embarras- 
sing. This  is  Freud's  method  of  free  association.  We  are 
also  alive  to  the  fact  that  the  psychoneurotic  symptom  is 
often  a  symbolic  expression  of  the  original  repressed  thoughts 
and  we  therefore  resort  to  Freud's  method  of  interpretation, 
that  is,  we  look  for  symbolic  expression,  psychopathological 
actions  and  make  use  of  the  analysis  of  dreams.  For 
unless  one  has  mastered  the  triad  of  Freud's  psychology, 
"The  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,"  "Psycho- 
pathology  of  Every  Day  Life,"  and  "The  Interpretation  of 
Dreams,"  one  is  unable  to  use  or  judge  Freud's  psycho- 
analytic method.  With  this  digression  we  will  now  return 
to  our  patient. 

On  being  questioned  concerning  his  obsessive  action  it  was  found 
that  it  concealed  the  obsessive  thought  "  God  may  get  into  me."  This 
thought  obsessed  him  for  months,  and  realizing  the  absurdity  of  it, 
he  was  ashamed  to  tell  it  to  anybody.  This  was  then  followed  by  the 
obsessive  action  described  above  which  was  a  protective  mechanism 
against  the  thought  and  signified  "I  will  pull  Him  out  again."  As 
the  word  "God"  seemed  to  be  the  most  important  word  in  the  obses- 
sion I  asked  him  to  concentrate  his  mind  on  this  word  and  tell  me  all 
the  associations  it  recalled  to  him.  He  gave  the  following:  "God — 
father — I  am  always  bothered  by  the  foolish  thought  that  God  will 
get  into  me."  He  suddenly  stopped  and  on  being  urged  to  continue  he 
said  that  something  just  occurred  to  him  which  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  thought  of  God  and  which  he  would  not  like  to  tell  unless  it  was 
absolutely  necessary.  On  being  told  to  continue  he  stated  that  it 
recalled  to  him  that  about  six  months  ago  while  being  at  work  a 
fellow  workingman  asked  him  to  look  out  of  the  window  where  he 
saw  two  dogs  in  the  act  of  copulation  and  remarked:  How  would  you 
like  to  be  the  top  dog?  This  was  very  embarrassing  to  him.  He 
turned  his  eyes  away  from  the  scene,  but  he  could  not  banish  a  number 
of  thoughts  and  fancies  which  then  came  to  his  mind.     One  thought 


38  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

was  "  How  would  it  be  to  get  into  the  dog?"  He  soon  repressed  these 
thoughts  and  kept  on  repeating  to  himself  "I  will  not  get  into  the  dog, 
the  dog  may  get  into  me."  Now  if  the  word  dog  is  read  backward  you 
will  find  that  it  spells  God  and  gives  the  key  to  the  whole  obsession. 

For  years  this  patient  was  in  the  habit  of  turning  words  about. 
He  showed  me  a  diary,  which  was  filled  with  mirror  writing  which  he 
used  because  he  did  not  want  anyone  in  the  house  to  know  his  affairs. 
We  note  that  he  at  first  consciously  changed  the  idea  "to  get  into  the 
dog"  into  "the  dog  may  get  into  me,"  and  as  the  idea  was  disagreeable 
it  was  repressed  and  the  word  "dog"  was  then  unconsciously  changed 
into  God.     This  completed  the  obsession.* 

As  will  be  shown  later  the  same  mechanisms  are  found 
in  dreams,  in  the  neologisms  of  the  insane  and  in  the 
normal.  I  am  sure  that  the  majority  of  my  readers  are 
aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Sesrun  Club  is  the  nurses'  club, 
but  perhaps  few  know  that  the  Yvel  Jewelry  company  is 
the  Levy  Jewelry  company.  The  basis  of  both  crypto- 
grams is  a  painful  idea.  Nurses'  Club  neither  looks  nor 
sounds  as  dignified  as  Sesrun  Club,  which  may  pass  as  a 
millionaires'  organization,  and  the  Yvel  Jewelry  company 
looks  better  and  is  perhaps  more  profitable  than  would 
be  the  Levy  Jewelry  company. 

This  is  a  very  simple  example  of  the  psychoanalysis  of 
an  obsession,  perhaps  too  simple  to  impress  some  of  you 
with  the  gravity  of  the  work,  but  we  cannot  change  the 
workings  of  the  mind.  Those  who  analyze  psychoneurotic 
symptoms  and  the  utterances  of  the  insane  can  always  find 
mechanisms.  Do  not,  however,  think  that  the  analyses 
of  this  obsession  and  the  afore-described  hysterical 
paralysis  were  as  simple  as  I  presented  them.  I  merely 
give  you  the  result  obtained  after  weeks  and  months 
of    painstaking    work.     It    would    have    been   impossible 

*For  detailed  description  of  compulsion  neurosis  see  Chapter  IV. 


THE    PSYCHONEUROSES  39 

to  give  here  the  full  analysis  on  any  of  the  cases,  as  an 
entire  volume  would  be  required  for  a  detailed  account 
of  any  one.  Indeed,  psychoanalysis  takes  time;  the 
treatment  of  a  chronic  case  usually  takes  from  six  months 
to  a  few  years,  but  the  most  refractory  chronic  cases  have 
been  cured  by  this  treatment.  Both  cases  mentioned 
were  cured  by  psychoanalysis  after  everything  else  was 
tried  in  vain. 

In  order  to  demonstrate  the  close  connection  between 
the  so  called  normal  and  abnormal  activities,  I  shall  next 
confine  myself  to  the  discussion  of  those  faulty  actions 
which  although  found  in  normal  individuals,  nevertheless 
show  the  same  mechanisms  as  dreams  and  symptoms. 
References 

1.  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria  and  Other  Psychoneuroses, 
p.  2,  Trans,  by  A.  A.  Brill,  Monograph  Series  Mental  and  Nervous 
Dis.  Pub.  Co.,  3d  Ed. 

2.  L.  c,  p.  5. 

3.  Freud:  Ueber  Psychoanalyse,  Deuticke,  Wien,  1910. 

4.  Freud:  Selected  Papers,  p.  87. 

5.  Freud  :L.  c,  p.  125. 

6.  L.  c,  p.  126. 

7.  Cf.  Chap.  VIII. 

8.  Selected  Papers,  p.  188. 

9.  Freud :  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  p.  38.  Trans, 
by  A.  A.  Brill,  Monograph  Series. 

10.  Cf.  Holt,  Diseases  of  Infancy  and  Childhood,  p.  739,  Second 
Edition. 

11.  Cf.  Chap.  XVI. 

12.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  27.     See  also  Chapter  VI V. 

13.  Selected  Papers,  p.  198. 

14.  Cf.  Chap.  III. 

15.  Freud:  L.  c,  197. 

16.  Freud :  Psychopathology  of  Every  Day  Life.  Trans,  by  A.  A. 
Brill,  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  London.     The  MaeMillan  Co.,  N.  Y. 


CHAPTER  II 

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY  OF  EVERY-DAY  LIFE 

Freud's  Conception  of  Consciousness,  Unconscious  and 
Foreconscious 

"Men's  little  ways  are  usually  more  interesting  and  often  more 
instructive  than  their  grand  manners.  When  they  are  off  guard  they 
frequently  show  to  better  advantage  than  when  they  are  on  parade." 
— Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke. 

In  my  discussion  of  the  psychoneurotic  mechanisms  I 
have  attempted  to  show  that  they  are  the  result  of  a  conflict 
between  two  psychic  streams  of  contrary  tendencies, 
each  striving  for  expression,  the  ultimate  outcome  of  which 
is  a  compromise  between  them.  Each  has  to  make  con- 
cessions, thus  meeting  the  other  half  way,  and  the  result 
of  this  mutual  accommodation  is  then  a  dream  or  a  psycho- 
neurotic symptom  which  represents  the  fulfilment  of  a 
wish.  These  mechanisms  are  not  conscious,  but  rather 
unconscious  processes.  Unconscious,  according  to  Freud, 
includes  all  those  psychic  manifestations  of  which  the 
person  is  unaware.  He  actually  does  not  discover  them, 
and  they  can  only  be  brought  to  the  surface  by  analysis. 
The  unconscious  is  made  up  of  the  repressed  material, 
that  is,  the  sum  total  of  those  psychic  processes  which 
have  been  crowded  out  of  consciousness  from  the  very 
beginning  of  childhood.  Thus,  all  the  primitive  impulses 
that  have  been  curbed  and  inhibited  with  the  development 

of  the  individual  are  in  a  state  of  repression.     They  form 

40 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY   LIFE  41 

points  of  crystallization  for  the  later  repressions  which 
mainly  consist  of  erotic  material.  The  later  experiences 
are  naturally  not  subjected  to  the  same  amount  of  repres- 
sion as  the  earlier  and  more  primitive  ones,  hence  some  of 
them  may  remain  in  what  Freud  calls  the  foreconscious. 

As  will  be  shown  later  the  dream  is  the  function  of  two 
separate  systems.  One  subjects  the  activity  of  the  other  to 
a  critique,  which  results  in  an  exclusion  from  consciousness. 
The  criticizing  system  is  in  closer  relation  to  consciousness 
than  the  one  criticized.  The  former,  the  foreconscious, 
stands  like  a  screen  between  the  unconscious  and  conscious- 
ness. Both  are  unconscious  in  the  psychological  sense,  but 
the  unconscious  is  incapable  of  consciousness  without  exter- 
nal aid,  while  the  foreconscious  can  reach  consciousness  after 
it  fulfils  certain  conditions  regarding  censorship.  It  is  the 
latter  that  directs  our  waking  life  and  determines  our  volun- 
tary conscious  actions.  Consciousness,  as  such,  plays  a 
very  small  part,  and  is  conceived  by  Freud  as  a  sensory  organ 
for  the  perception  of  psychic  qualities.  The  repressed 
material  or  the  unconscious  consists  of  wishes  which  are 
always  active  and  strive  for  expression  whenever  they  have 
an  opportunity  to  unite  with  affects  from  conscious  life. 
They  thus  determine  all  our  actions,  and  our  character  is 
mainly  based  on  memory  traces  of  those  repressed  impres- 
sions that  have  influenced  us  most  strongly — those  of 
our  early  youth — which  almost  never  become  conscious. 

Besides  the  infantile  repressions  we  also  have  the  later 
repressions  that  are  made  up  of  painful  and  intolerable 
thoughts  which  are  intentionally  crowded  out  of  conscious- 
ness. The  individual  intentionally  strives  to  forget  them 
and  he  seemingly  succeeds.     This  is  a  protective  mechanism 


42  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

for  the  good  of  the  organism,  for  what  would  happen  to  us 
if  we  were  always  confronted  by  the  numberless  painful 
and  disagreeable  incidents  of  life?  However,  what  we 
imagine  to  be  forgotten  remains  in  the  unconscious  in  a 
repressed  state  and  forms  a  complex.  The  complex  remains 
in  an  inert  state  until  incited  by  some  association.  Thus,  an 
elderly  woman  experiences  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  whenever 
she  by  chance  sees  a  red-haired  person.  She  is  unable  to 
account  for  it,  and  of  late  it  has  especially  annoyed  her  because 
on^  of  the  members  of  her  club  happens  to  be  of  the  Titian 
type.  Analysis  showed  that  forty-eight  years  ago  she  had  a 
very  unpleasant  experience  with  a  red-haired  schoolmate. 
She  was  not  at  all  cognizant  of  this  incident  each  time  she  felt 
that  "sense  of  uneasiness"  and  was  wont  to  attribute  it  to 
the  popular  prejudice.  But  as  she  considers  herself  above 
such  prejudice  she  could  not  understand  her  rude  manners 
toward  the  woman  of  the  Titian  type.  It  was  only  after 
a  lengthy  analysis,  after  all  the  resistances  were  broken, 
that  the  original  incident  became  conscious  to  her.  An- 
other interesting  example  reported  to  me  by  Dr.  Christian 
Brinton  is  the  following:  A  scholarly  gentleman  of  eighty 
seven  years  showed  all  his  life  an  extreme  aversion  to  yellow 
colors.  Besides  being  a  litterateur  of  high  standing  he  was 
also  a  recognized  connoisseur  of  art  and  his  bUnd  dislike  for 
yellow  in  any  painting  struck  his  friends  as  pecuUar.  One 
day  when  this  subject  came  up  his  son  who  is  learned  in  psy- 
choanalysis asked  his  father  for  "continuous  association" 
to  yellow.  It  was  soon  found  that  when  the  old  man  was 
seven  years  old  he  and  an  older  boy  discovered  in  a  barn  a 
hen's  nest  containing  old  eggs.  The  older  boy  threw  some 
of  these  mal-odorous  eggs  at  him  which  not  only  caused 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY   OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  43 

him  considerable  disgust  but  also  punishment  from  his 
parents  because  his  clothes  were  besmirched  with  yellow 
rotten  eggs.  This  example  not  only  demonstrates  the 
tenaciousness  of  impressions — it  was  definitely  ascertained 
that  the  old  gentleman  did  not  recall  this  episode  for  over 
eighty  years — but  also  unconscious  resistances. 

These  resistances  are  always  active  and  only  during 
sleep  do  they  partially  slacken.  It  is  then  that  the 
repressed  material  comes  to  the  surface  in  the  form  of 
dreams,  but  as  the  resistances  never  lose  their  full  power, 
they  distort  everything  that  passes  them  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  dreamer  cannot  recognize  his  repressed 
thoughts  or  his  unattainable  wishes.  But  it  is  not  only  in 
the  abnormal  states  and  in  the  dream  that  the  repression 
strives  to  fulfil  wishes.  We  find  that  the  same  influences  are 
also  evinced  in  our  waking  states  in  psychopathological 
actions  of  every-day  life. 

By  psychopathological  actions  we  understand  those 
incorrect  psychic  activities  which  the  individual  daily 
performs,  but  of  which  he  is  not  conscious  at  the  time 
being.  Among  these  different  manifestations  may  be 
mentioned  lapses  of  memory,  of  talking,  writing,  mistakes, 
etc.i 

Among  the  lapses  of  memory  we  may  have  the  common 
occurrences  of  forgetting  names,  of  forgetting  words  in 
poetry  or  foreign  words.  In  all  these  cases  we  must  first 
assume  that  the  person  in  question  does  not  suffer  from 
any  nervous  or  mental  affection  producing  qualitative  or 
quantitative  memory  disturbances  and  that  the  things 
forgotten  have  once  been  well  known.  Everyone  is 
famiUar  with  the  feeUng  of  being  unable  to  recall  a  name 


44  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

or  a  word.  We  think  of  a  person  whose  name  we  knew 
well,  but  try  as  hard  as  we  may  the  name  cannot  be 
recalled.  We  see  the  person  in  our  mind's  eye.  We 
think  of  hundreds  of  incidents  and  associations  connected 
with  him,  but  despite  that  his  name  cannot  be  recalled. 
Often  other  names  occur  to  us  which  we  immediately 
recognize  as  false,  yet  they  persist  in  thrusting  themselves 
into  our  minds.  This  may  continue  for  hours  or  days 
until  the  correct  name  comes  unexpectedly  or  we  ask  some- 
one for  it.  We  never  think  of  the  cause  of  our  forgetting 
because  it  is  so  self-evident  nor  do  we  try  to  find  why  we 
suddenly  recalled  this  long-sought-for  name  or  word. 

Freud  tells  us  that  the  reason  for  this  forgetting  is,  in 
many  cases,  due  to  its  direct  or  indirect  association  with 
something  repressed — that  is,  something  disagreeable 
or  painful.  This  has  been  fully  confirmed  by  such  observ- 
ers as  Bleuler,  Jones  and  others.  Personally  I  can  state 
that  in  every  case  amenable  to  analysis  I  could  corroborate 
Freud's  observation.  The  following  examples  will  serve 
as  illustrations: 

I.  FORGETTING  OF  NAMES 

(a)  A  young  newspaper  man  to  whom  I  explained 
Freud's  ideas  concerning  the  forgetting  of  names  insisted 
that  this  could  not  be  true  and  to  prove  his  assertion  he 
related  the  following  incident: 

"My  friend  Jack  left  the  city  recently  and  the  other  day  I  wrote 
him  a  letter.  On  addressing  the  envelope  I  failed  to  remember  his 
surname.  I  began  with  'Jack'  and  for  the  life  of  me  I  could  not 
proceed.  After  at  least  five  minutes  thinking  I  finally  recalled  that 
his  surname  was  Murphy.  Now  as  he  is  my  best  friend  I  fail  to  see 
the  disagreeable  or  painful  connection."  I  then  proceeded  to  analyze 
it  by  the  "continuous  association"  method.     I  asked  him  to  concen- 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY   LIFE  45 

trate  his  mind  on  the  word  Murphy  and  tell  me  all  the  associations  it 
evoked.  He  produced  the  following:  "Murphy  recalls  my  friend 
Jack.  We  went  to  school  together  and  have  been  friends  since." 
He  then  continued  to  give  a  number  of  incidents  connected  with  their 
school  life,  all  of  which  were  of  a  rather  pleasant  nature  and  added: 
"You  see,  I  could  talk  about  Jack  and  myself  for  hours."  Asked 
whether  he  knew  any  other  Murphy  he  was  at  first  pretty  sure  that 
he  did  not,  but  he  soon  recalled  his  friend's  brother  for  whom  he 
entertained  great  regard.  After  awhile  he  recalled  another  Murphy, 
Mr.  Murphy,  of  Tammany  fame.  He  disUkes  Tammany  Hall  and 
its  leader  "as  every  good  RepubUcan  does,  but  that  is  no  reason  for 
forgetting  Jack's  name."  He  then  continued  to  associate  freely  from 
one  idea  to  another  until  he  suddenly  broke  into  laughter  and  then 
remarked:  "It  is  funny  that  I  did  not  think  of  it  before.  I  now 
remember  another  Murphy,  a  newspaper  man  whom  I  know  very 
well."  Asked  to  tell  something  about  him  he  said:  "This  is  the 
only  man  I  hate"  and  then  delivered  a  long  tirade  against  this  Mr. 
Murphy. 

We  can  now  understand  why  he  could  not  recall  his 
friend's  name.  The  name  Murphy  was  under  repression 
because  it  represented  a  person  whom  he  hated.  His 
own  friend's  name  was  also  Murphy,  but  to  him  it  was 
always  Jack.  He  always  called  him  Jack  and  in  his  mind 
it  was  Jack  and  not  Murphy.  He  never  corresponded 
with  him  before.  This  was  the  first  time  he  was  obliged 
to  use  Jack's  surname.  He  could  not  recall  it  (1)  because 
it  was  directly  connected  with  something  unpleasant  to 
him  and  (2)  he  could  not  resign  himself  to  give  Jack  the 
name  of  the  man  he  hated. 

The  last  mechanism  is  often  observed  in  such  slips  of 
the  -tongue  as  the  following:  While  conversing  Mrs.  S., 
inquiring  about  a  mutual  friend,  said:  "How  is  Mrs. 
Brown?"  She  was  immediately  corrected  by  a  "You 
mean    Mrs.    Blank"    to    which    she    replied    "Yes,    Mrs. 


46  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Blank.  I  made  a  mistake."  There  was  only  one  reason, 
I  thought,  why  she  called  Mrs.  Blank  by  her  maiden  name 
which  was  Brown  and  to  test  my  theory  I  said:  "What 
is  wrong  with  Mr.  Blank?"  She  thoughtlessly  answered 
"Oh,  I  don't  like  him,"  and  then  becoming  conscious  of 
what  she  said  she  showed  her  embarrassment  by  blushing, 
but  she  added  consciously  "I  never  liked  him;  I  am  sorry 
she  married  him." 

Here  the  mistake  showed  her  dislike  for  Mr.  Blank. 
The  repression  fulfills  her  wish  in  not  recognizing  the 
marriage  by  continuing  to  use  the  maiden  name.  It  is 
of  quite  different  significance,  however,  if  the  lady  herself 
continues  to  use  her  maiden  name  after  marriage.  Freud 
mentions  the  case  of  a  lady  who  years  before  her  divorce 
continued  to  use  her  maiden  name  in  signing  documents,  etc. 

(b)  While  reading  one  day  the  text  recalled  to  me  a  case 
which  I  had  published  years  before.  I  desired  to  make  a 
marginal  note  to  that  effect  when  I  suddenly  found  that 
I  could  not  recall  the  name  of  my  patient.  This  patient 
was  under  my  personal  care  for  months  and  the  features 
of  the  case  were  such  that  I  had  daily  spent  hours  with  him, 
so  that  it  was  the  more  remarkable  that  I  could  not 
recall  the  name.  As  usual  I  made  a  great  effort  to  recall 
it  and  it  was  only  after  some  time  that  I  thought  of  Freud's 
theories  and  decided  to  test  them  by  analyzing  this  lapse 
of  memory.  The  case  in  question  had  presented  so  many  un- 
usual and  interesting  aspects  that  I  was  advised  to  publish  it. 
After  a  painstaking  preparation  I  was  ready  to  send  it  to 
the  publisher  when  I  was  informed  that  my  senior  had 
decided  to  read  a  paper  on  this  very  subject  before  a 
medical  society  and  that  I  was  to  have  this  paper  ready  for 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  47 

him  on  a  certain  date.  My  feelings  on  hearing  this  can 
readily  be  imagined.  The  thought  of  having  labored  for 
days  and  of  some  one  else  getting  the  credit  for  it  caused  me 
indignation  and  depression.  My  colleagues  sympathized 
with  me,  but  all  they  could  do  was  to  make  merry  over  it. 
This  continued  until  the  day  before  the  meeting  when  I 
was  informed  that  owing  to  unforeseen  circumstances  I 
was  to  attend  this  meeting  myself  and  read  the  paper. 
I  read  this  paper  as  directed,  but  very  few  of  the  members 
knew  the  true  circumstances  of  the  matter.  Most  of  them 
thought  that  I  was  merely  sent  to  read  the  paper.  The 
reports  of  the  meeting  as  given  in  the  different  medical 
journals  gave  the  name  of  my  senior  as  the  reader  of  the 
paper.  The  reader  will  pardon  my  indulging  in  person- 
alities. It  is  indispensable  in  psychoanalysis  and  here  it 
serves  to  show  the  marked  displeasure  and  pain  which 
caused  the  repression. 

When  one  attempts  to  follow  Freud's  method  of  "free 
association"  he  soon  finds  himself  in  a  maze.  The  longer 
he  proceeds  the  more  complicated  the  problem  seems  to 
become  and  to  the  inexperienced  it  appears  like  an  endless 
confusion.  Now  and  then  our  thoughts,  as  it  were,  stop. 
We  call  this  an  "obstruction"  or  a  "blocking"  and 
experience  teaches  us  that  this  phenomenon  generally  accom- 
panies or  precedes  some  important  complex.  In  analyz- 
ing psychoneurotic  symptoms  the  patients  often  stop  and 
say  "That's  all.  I  cannot  think  of  anjrthing  else."  After 
considerable  urging  they  finally,  perhaps  after  blushing, 
laughing  or  stammering,  do  think  of  something  else.  Fre- 
quently the  mind  makes  use  of  symbolic  expressions  and 
ambiguous  terms   which   the   physician   must  always   be 


48  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

alive  to.     All  these  are  due  to  the  inhibitions  of  the  psychic 
censor  against  the  painful  and  disagreeable  thoughts. 

On  beginning  to  discover  by  analysis  the  name  of  my 
patient  I  soon  found  myself  in  a  very  complicated  milieu. 
I  distinctly  saw  his  features  in  my  mind.  I  reviewed  all 
the  circumstances  connected  with  the  case  and  noted  all 
my  associations.  Page  after  page  was  filled  and  time 
flew  faster  than  it  seemed.  I  suddenly  found  that  I  had 
spent  five  hours  of  assiduous  appUcation  and  filled  over 
two  dozen  pages,  but  was  seemingly  as  far  from  getting 
the  name  as  when  I  first  started.  Frequently  my  thoughts 
stopped  only  to  start  anew.  I  was  most  desirous  not  only 
of  recalling  the  name,  but  of  testing  Freud's  theory,  as  it 
was  my  first  attempt.  It  would  be  useless  and  impossible 
to  recall  the  different  associations,  but  the  following  will 
suffice  to  explain  the  analysis:  On  seeing  the  patient  in 
my  mind's  eye  the  name  Appenzeller  presented  itself  to 
me.  Appenzeller  was  one  of  my  patients  in  the  psychiatri- 
cal clinic  at  Zurich  where  I  was  an  assistant  physician  at  the 
time  of  the  analysis.  There  was  no  resemblance  between 
the  two  patients  except  that  my  New  York  patient  was 
a  psychic  epileptic  and  Appenzeller  suffered  from  motor 
epilepsy,  yet  the  latter  name  persistently  emerged  from  the 
association  mass.  The  scenes  connected  with  my  New  York 
patient  as  well  as  numerous  other  hospital  experiences 
continued  to  pass  in  a  panoramic  review.  Some  were 
especially  persistent  and  vivid,  recurring  with  greater 
frequency  than  the  others.  Thus,  one  scene,  an  actual 
occurrence,  was  especially  vivid.  It  recalled  a  forest 
fire  near  the  hospital.  I  stood  watching  the  fire  with 
my  senior,  Dr.  Z.,  who  played  such  a  great  part  in  the 


FSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  49 

episode,  and  Dr.  X.  joined  me.  Many  rabbits  driven 
out  by  the  fire  were  shot.  While  thus  standing  Dr.  Z. 
turned  to  a  hospital  attendant  and  asked  him  for  his 
shotgun  as  a  rabbit  was  seen  running  from  the  under- 
brush. He  waited  for  the  animal  to  come  within  range 
and  then  got  ready  to  fire,  remarking:  "Let  me  see  whether 
I  can  get  this  rabbit."  A  crack  was  heard,  but  the  rabbit 
scampered  away.  Dr.  X.  and  I  looked  at  each  other 
smilingly,  but  quickly  changed  countenance  when  Dr.  Z. 
turned  to  us  and  said  "My  finger  slipped  on  account  of 
the  rain."  This  scene  persistently  recurred  from  time  to 
time,  but  I  attached  no  more  weight  to  it  than  to  the  hun- 
dreds of  others.  Yet  whenever  my  supply  of  associations 
seemed  to  be  exhausted  and  I  started  over  again,  the  name 
of  Appenzeller  and  this  scene  continually  reappeared.  I 
finally  tired  of  the  whole  process  and  thought  of  giving  it 
up,  but  despite  my  willingness  to  do  so  I  could  not  banish 
the  numerous  scenes  from  my  mind.  While  thus  con- 
templating I  again  saw  the  rabbit  scene  and  heard  Dr.  Z. 
say,  "Let  me  see  whether  I  can  get  this  rabbit,"  and  just 
then  the  name  of  the  patient  suddenly  came  to  me.  It 
was  "Lapin"  which  is  the  French  for  rabbit. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  had  I  been  keen  enough  it 
would  have  saved  me  hours  of  pabor  for  during  the 
analysis  this  scene  occurred  twenty-eight  times  more  than 
any  other.  But  owing  to  my  inexperience  at  the  time 
and  my  intense  desire  to  get  the  name  I  overlooked  the 
very  thing  Freud  lays  so  much  stress  upon — that  is,  the 
symbolic  expressions,  etc.  This  whole  rabbit  scene 
symbolizes  the  Lapin  episode.  Dr.  Z.  attempted  to  get 
the  rabbit  (Lapin)  but  missed  it.     To  be  sure,  it  must  be 

4 


50  '  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

remembered  that  although  I  am  conversant  with  French, 
in  my  mind  Lapin  was  always  translated  into  rabbit 
because  I  think  in  English.  In  fact  I  distinctly  recall 
that  I  had  frequently  translated  mentally  the  name  Lapin 
into  rabbit.  If  we  now  bear  in  mind  the  French  pronuncia- 
tion of  Lapin  we  can  understand  why  Appenzeller  con- 
tinued to  substitute  itself.  The  first  part — Appen — 
phonetically  resembles  Lapin — Appen,  Lapen.  Further- 
more, both  patients  suffered  from  epilepsy.  The  case 
clearly  shows  how  a  name  may  be  repressed  on  account  of  a 
disagreeable  experience. 

(c)  A  colleague  who  was  acquainted  with  Freud's 
theories  asked  me  to  help  him  recall  the  name  of  one  of 
his  patients  whom  he  treated  almost  daily  for  three  months 
up  to  five  weeks  before  he  spoke  to  me.  He  was  thinking 
of  him  on  his  way  to  see  me  and  was  surprised  to  have 
forgotten  the  name.  Analysis  gave  the  following  associa- 
tions: "He  is  a  broker  who  was  once  well  to  do.  For 
three  months  he  was  under  my  care.  I  cured  him  of  a 
grave  illness.  He  has  not  paid  me  for  treatment,  though 
he  promised  long  ago  to  do  so.  The  last  time  he  came 
to  see  me  he  wanted  me  to  sign  some  papers  for  him  which 
I  refused  to  do  as  I  did  not  care  to  make  any  false  state- 
ments. Since  then  I  have  not  heard  from  him.  It  now 
occurs  to  me  that  the  name  ends  with  'son.'"  He  then 
gave  a  number  of  names  ending  with  "son"  all  of  which 
he  recognized  as  incorrect.  Again  the  patient's  ingrati- 
tude. "When  I  cured  him  he  was  grateful.  He  kept  on 
saying  that  he  would  never  forget  what  I  had  done  for  him 
and  that  as  soon  as  he  returned  to  business  he  would  pay 
me  what  he  owed  me" — sudden  blocking — then  recalled 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  51 

his  own  ingratitude.  He,  too.  is  under  obligations  to  a 
distant  relative  whom  he  dislikes,  but  to  whom  he  owes 
much.  He  received  a  letter  six  weeks  before,  requesting 
the  loan  of  a  sum  of  money,  but  after  reading  it  he  mislaid 
it  and  never  thought  of  it  again.  His  relative's  name  is 
Brown — suddenly  recalls  his  former  patient's  name 
"Bronson." 

Here  the  forgetfulness  was  determined  not  so  much  by 
his  patient's  action  as  by  the  disagreeable  feehng  con- 
nected with  his  own  affair.  He  was  under  obligations  to 
Mr.  Brown.  He  really  should  have  sent  him  the  money 
requested  but  "times  are  bad"  and,  strange  to  say,  he 
mislaid  the  letter  and  never  thought  of  it.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  may  be  mentioned  that  this  is  the  usual  mechanism  of 
mislaying.     Things  which  we  really  value  we  never  mislay. 

(d)  A  man  was  urged  by  his  wife  to  attend  a  social 
function  in  which  he  not  only  took  no  interest,  but  which 
he  was  sure  would  actually  bore  him.  Yielding  to  his 
wife's  entreaties  he  began  to  take  his  dress  suit  from  the 
trunk  when  he  suddenly  thought  of  shaving.  After 
accomplishing  this  he  returned  to  the  trunk  and  found 
it  locked.  Despite  a  long,  earnest  search,  the  key  could 
not  be  found.  A  locksmith  could  not  be  found  on  Sunday 
evening  so  that  the  couple  had  to  send  their  regrets.  On 
having  the  trunk  opened  the  next  morning  the  lost  key 
was  found  within.  The  husband  had  absentmindedly 
dropped  the  key  into  the  trunk  and  sprung  the  lock.  He 
assured  me  that  this  was  wholly  unintentional  and  uncon- 
scious. It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  he 
did  not  wish  to  go.  There  was  a  motive,  as  we  see,  in 
the  mislaying.     A  lover  never  misplaces  a  letter  from  his 


52  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

sweetheart  nor  does  he  ever  mislay  or  forget  to  mail  a 
letter  written  to  her.  We  only  mislay  what  we  do  not 
want.  We  are  more  apt  to  mislay  letters  containing 
bills  than  checks. 

(e)  The  same  mechanism  comes  into  play  in  the  mis- 
sending  of  letters.  One  of  my  patients  was  corresponding 
with  a  woman  to  whom  he  was  favorably  disposed.  One 
day  he  received  a  letter  from  her  which,  on  opening, 
he  found  was  meant  for  another  man  who  was  also  one 
of  her  admirers.  In  this  letter  she  refused  a  proposal 
made  by  the  latter.  The  mistake  served  to  show  my 
patient  that  he  was  not  her  only  admirer  and  thus  stirred 
him  to  greater  activities.  At  the  same  time  it  showed  the 
other  fellow  why  he  was  rejected  as  the  letter  which  he 
received  and  which  was  meant  for  my  patient  was  a  very 
amorous  epistle. 

The  last  two  examples  may  also  be  classified  under  erro- 
neously carried-out  intentions,  another  good  example  of 
which  is  the  following: 

(/)  A  young  married  woman  requested  me  to  explain  to 
her  why,  instead  of  pushing  the  button  to  light  her  room, 
she  pushed  the  button  for  the  waiter.  The  explanation 
was  not  difficult.  This  lady  lived  in  one  of  the  big  hotels 
while  she  was  in  New  York  being  treated  by  me.  The 
afternoon  before  the  episode  she  with  two  other  ladies  went 
to  a  fashionable  public  the  Dansant  and  were  very  disap- 
pointed. After  paying  a  high  admission  fee  they  found 
the  place  almost  deserted  and  no  one  to  dance  with.  One 
of  her  friends  remarked:  "The  waiter  is  the  only  interesting 
person  here."  She  was  not  more  fortunate  the  following 
day.     The  people  she  met  were  uninteresting  and  bored 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  53 

her.  It  was  in  this  state  of  mind  that  she  returned  to  the 
hotel  late  in  the  afternoon  and  made  the  mistake  mentioned. 
It  is  significant  that  although  she  started  out  with  the -in- 
tention of  lighting  her  room  she  failed  to  notice  that  her 
room  remained  dark,  and  only  recalled  her  intention  after 
she  was  surprised  by  a  visit  from  the  waiter.  Her  erro- 
neously carried-out  action  had  a  motive — the  "waiter  was 
the  only  interesting  person  to  whom  she  could  talk." 

n.  FORGETTING  A  RESOLUTION  IS  DUE  TO  SIMILAR  CAUSES 

(a)  While  absorbed  in  reading  S.  interrupted  himself, 
opened  a  box  containing  numerous  books,  pamphlets  and 
papers  and  began  to  rummage  through  them.  He  soon 
stopped,  however,  not  knowing  what  he  was  looking  for. 
He  was  sure  that  he  wanted  something  from  the  box, 
but  he  could  not  recall  what  it  was.  He  looked  over 
many  things,  but  did  not  recognize  what  he  wanted.  On 
trying  to  recall  the  motive  for  opening  the  box  he  was 
attracted  by  the  open  book  which  he  left  on  the  table 
and  then  thought  that  there  must  have  been  something 
in  what  he  was  just  reading  which  caused  him  to  open  the 
box.  With  this  in  view  he  began  to  re-read  the  page  and 
plainly  recalled  its  contents  as  far  as  he  had  read,  the  last 
sentence  being,  "We  feel  more  than  we  know."  It  was 
while  thinking  of  this  sentence  that  he  stopped  and 
opened  the  box.  On  freely  associating  to  this  last  sen- 
tence he  obtained  the  following:  "We  feel  more  than  we 
can  ever  know.  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  marry,  but  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  really  should.  I  used  to  feel  that  my 
fiancee  did  not  really  love  me,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I 
was  not  sure  of  it.     I  worried  much  over  it,  but  it  was 


54  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

merely  a  lover's  doubt.  I  am  now  sure  of  her  love.  She 
wants  to  marry  as  soon  as  I  return  and  wishes  to  have  an 
elaborate  church  wedding  which  I  dislike.  But  perhaps 
that  will  not  come  to  pass.  Something  might  happen.  I 
have  recently  read  of  the  stormy  seas.  An  accident 
might  happen  to  me  while  crossing  the  ocean,"  (feeling  of 
fear  and  jealousy)  and  the  thought  "after  all  I  may 
also  be  a  specter  bridegroom"  suddenly  recalled  that 
he  had  been  looking  for  Washington  Irving's  ''Sketch 
Book." 

This  incident  occurred  while  S.  was  abroad  and  his 
fiancee  was  in  the  United  States.  While  abroad  he  was 
asked  to  translate  for  a  foreign  periodical  a  short  story 
from  English  literature  and  he  selected  the  Specter 
Bridegroom  from  Washington  Irving's  "Sketch  Book." 
The  day  before  the  incident  recounted  above  he  had  received 
a  letter  from  the  editor  of  the  Revue  telling  him  that  under 
separate  cover  he  was  sending  the  proof  sheets  of  the 
translation  for  correction.  He  thought  of  looking  for  the 
"Sketch  Book"  which  he  had  in  the  box,  but  failed  to  do 
so  just  then.  It  was  while  unconsciously  ruminating  over 
the  above  cited  sentence  that  the  Specter  Bridegroom  came 
to  his  mind  and  he  set  out  to  find  it,  but  as  he  unconsciously 
identified  himself  with  Count  von  Altenberg,  the  unfortunate 
hero  of  Irving's  sketch,  who  was  killed  while  on  his  way  to 
his  bride,  the  painful  thought  was  quickly  repressed,  taking 
with  it  all  the  concomitant  associations. 

(6)  A  confrere  tells  me  the  following  experience:  He 
started  to  make  a  call  on  a  patient  in  a  certain  street,  but 
instead  of  going  there  he  called  upon  another  patient.  The 
reason  for  this   was  very  simple.     Patient  number  one 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  55 

paid  his  bill  every  January,  while  patient  number  two 
paid  for  each  visit.  That  morning  the  doctor  was  in  need 
of  money,  hence  he  would  have  preferred  to  go  to  patient 
number  two. 

(c)  One  of  my  patients,  a  music  teacher,  told  me  a 
similar  experience.  On  going  to  see  a  pupil  in  New  York 
City  he  unexpectedly  landed  in  Brooklyn.  The  music 
teacher  carried  on  a  secret  love  affair  with  his  pupil's  sister, 
and  was  accustomed  to  see  her  every  evening  after  the  lesson. 
He  usually  gave  the  lesson  in  the  evening,  but  this  time 
he  was  told  to  come  in  the  morning.  He  knew  well  that 
he  would  not  see  her  in  the  morning  because  she  would  be  at 
work,  but  he  did  not  like  to  refuse  lest  it  might  arouse 
suspicion.  On  going  to  give  the  lesson  he  simply  rode  too 
far,  "having  been  absorbed  in  his  newspaper."  As  it 
was  too  late  to  return  from  Brooklyn  and  give  the  lesson 
in  the  morning  he  was  forced  to  postpone  it  till  the  evening. 
He  assured  me  that  he  really  intended  to  go  to  his  pupil's 
house. 

(d)  Another  patient  invited  two  ladies  to  spend  an 
evening  at  the  theater.  It  was  decided  by  the  ladies  to 
see  the  play  "Alias  Jimmy  Valentine."  On  getting  into 
the  cab  he  unconsciously  ordered  the  driver  to  take  them 
to  another  theater  and  did  not  notice  his  mistake  until 
they  arrived  at  the  wrong  theater.  Then  it  was  too  late 
to  rectify  it.  Here  it  was  the  case  of  a  homosexual  person 
who  was  in  constant  fear  of  the  law  and  who  disliked  to 
see  a  play  dealing  with  convicts  and  prisons.  The  theater 
to  which  he  ordered  the  driver  to  take  him  presented  the 
play  "The  Three  Daughters  of  Mons.  Dupont,"  which 
deals  with  a  selJSsh  father  who  was  finally  brought  to 


56  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

reason  by  his  own  children.  He  disliked  his  own  father 
and  was  constantly  trying  to  show  him  how  to  live  prop- 
erly. His  mistakes  served  to  exchange  a  disagreeable 
for  an  enjoyable  evening. 

These  examples  show  that  forgetting  a  resolution  is 
exactly  the  same  as  forgetting  to  recall  a  name  or  word 
— that  is,  it  is  always  determined  by  a  painful  motive. 

III.  MISTAKES  IN  SPEAKING,  READING  AND  WRITING 

Mistakes  in  speaking  show  a  similar  mechanism.  The 
disturbing  influence  is  either  a  single  unconsciously  re- 
maining thought  which  manifests  itself  through  the  mis- 
take and  can  often  be  discovered  only  after  detailed  analy- 
sis, or  it  is  a  general  psychic  motive  directed  against  the 
whole  thing  spoken. 

(a)  At  a  private  theatrical  rehearsal  the  hero,  instead 
of  saying  "I  love  you,  Emma,"  said  "I  love  you,  Helen." 
The  latter  was  the  name  of  the  girl  with  whom  he  was 
really  in  love. 

(6)  Recently  an  acquaintance  asked  me  to  introduce  him 
to  one  of  my  friends  who  was  about  to  leave  for  Europe.  I 
did  not  like  to  do  it,  but  I  could  not  possibly  refuse. 
After  hesitating  for  awhile  I  said  "Come  around  next 
Sunday  and  I'll  take  you  to  his  office."  My  wife,  who  was 
near,  interposed  with  ''Why,  he  sails  Saturday."  I 
immediately  corrected  myself,  saying  *'I  meant  Friday." 
Here  the  mistake  was  the  answer  to  the  thought,  "I  wonder 
how  I  can  avoid  this."  Fortunately  my  acquaintance 
knew  nothing  of  Freud's  mechanisms. 

(c)  A  lady,  talking  about  her  husband  with  whom  she 
lived  a  very  unhappy  life  because  he  was  addicted  to 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY    LIFE  57 

drink,  said  among  other  things,  "I  can  never  discuss  with 
him  any  intelHgent  topic  because  he  is  so  full,"  meaning 
"dull." 

(d)  A  friend  described  to  me  a  nervous  patient  and 
wished  me  to  know  whether  I  could  benefit  him.  I  re- 
marked "I  believe  that  in  time  I  could  remove  all  his 
symptoms  by  psychoanalysis  because  it  is  a  durable  case," 
wishing  to  say  "curable."  It  was  not  merely  the  sound 
association  between  the  two  words  which  caused  the  mistake. 
From  the  description  I  diagnosed  the  case  as  chronic 
hysteria  and  experience  teaches  that  such  cases  generally 
require  a  very  protracted  treatment,  hence  durable. 

(e)  A  young  man,  talking  about  an  old  woman  who  was 
foolishly  in  love  with  him,  said  "I  am  thinking  seriously 
of  burying  her"  instead  of  marrying.  Here  the  lapsus 
lingua)  betrays  his  inner  feelings  in  the  matter.  He  would 
marry  this  old  and  wealthy  woman  if  he  should  know  that 
she  would  soon  die  and  leave  him  her  money. 

(/)  A  woman  wishing  to  say  that  her  brother  had  recently 
lost  in  weight  and  that  he  weighed  only  175  pounds,  said: 
"And  now  he  weighs  only  $1.75."  The  slip  becomes  clear 
when  we  know  that  her  brother  was  at  the  time  being  tried 
for  bankruptcy. 

(g)  While  walking  one  night  with  a  friend  we  acci- 
dentally met  a  colleague.  Dr.  P.  whom  I  had  not  seen  for 
years  and  of  whose  private  life  I  knew  nothing.  We  were 
naturally  very  pleased  to  meet  again  and  on  my  invitation 
he  accompanied  us  to  a  cafe  where  we  spent  about  two 
hours  in  pleasant  conversation.  To  my  question  as  to 
whether  he  was  married  he  gave  a  negative  answer  and 
added,  "Why  should  a  man  like  me  marry?" 


58  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

On  leaving  the  caf6  he  suddenly  turned  to  me  and  said: 
"I  should  like  to  know  what  you  would  do  in  a  case  like 
this.  I  know  a  nurse  who  was  named  as  co-respondent 
in  a  divorce  case.  The  wife  sued  the  husband  for  divorce 
and  named  her  as  co-respondent  and  he  got  the  divorce." 
I  interrupted  him  saying  "You  mean  she  got  the  divorce." 
He  immediately  corrected  himself,  saying,  "Yes,  she  got 
the  divorce"  and  continued  to  tell  how  the  excitement  of 
the  trial  had  affected  this  nurse  to  such  an  extent  that  she 
became  nervous  and  took  to  drink.  He  wanted  me  to 
advise  him  how  to  treat  her,  etc. 

As  soon  as  I  corrected  his  mistake  I  asked  him  to  explain 
it,  but,  as  is  usually  the  case,  he  was  surprised  at  my  ques- 
tion. He  wanted  to  know  whether  a  person  had  no  right 
to  make  mistakes  in  talking.  I  explained  to  him  that 
there  is  a  reason  for  every  mistake  and  that  if  he  had  not 
told  me  that  he  was  unmarried  I  would  say  that  he  was  the 
hero  of  the  divorce  case  in  question  and  that  the  mistake 
showed  that  he  wished  he  had  obtained  the  divorce  instead 
of  his  wife;  so  as  not  to  be  obhged  to  pay  the  alimony  and 
to  be  permitted  to  marry  again  in  New  York  City.  He 
stoutly  denied  my  interpretation,  but  his  emotional  agitation, 
followed  by  loud  laughter,  only  strengthened  my  suspicions. 
To  my  appeal  that  he  should  tell  the  truth  for  science 
sake,  he  said  "  Unless  you  wish  me  to  lie  you  must  believe 
that  I  was  never  married  and  hence  your  psychoanalytic 
interpretation  is  all  wrong."  He,  however,  added  that  it 
was  dangerous  to  be  with  a  person  who  paid  attention  to 
such  little  things.  Then  he  suddenly  remembered  that  he 
had  another  appointment  and  left  us. 

Both  my  friend  Dr.  Frink  and  I  were  convinced  that  my 


PSTCHOPATHOLOGY   OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  59 

interpretation  of  his  lapsus  linguae  was  correct  and  I  decided 
to  corroborate  or  disprove  it  by  further  investigation. 
The  next  day  I  found  a  neighbor,  an  old  friend  of  Dr.  P., 
who  confirmed  my  interpretation  in  every  particular. 
The  divorce  was  granted  to  Dr.  P.'s  wife  a  few  weeks 
before  and  a  nurse  was  named  as  co-respondent.  A 
few  weeks  later  I  met  Dr.  P.  and  he  told  me  that  he  was 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  Freudian  mechanisms. 

(h)  A  homosexual  whom  I  treated  for  some  time  and 
who  considered  himself  cured  made  this  mistake  on  leaving 
my  office:  instead  of  saying  "I  shall  now  go  to  the  Hotel 
Robespierre"  he  said,  "I  shall  now  go  to  the  Hotel  St. 
Pierre."  I  noticed  his  mistake  and  asked  him  whether  he 
knew  of  a  hotel  in  New  York  City  by  the  name  of  St. 
Pierre.  He  stated  that  he  had  never  heard  of  a  hotel 
named  the  St.  Pierre  and  that  he  meant  to  say  the  Hotel 
Robespierre. 

The  analysis  furnished  the  following  associations: 
"St.  Pierre — St.  Peter — Rome — adoration," — he  recalled 
having  seen  the  devout  kiss  the  toe  of  St.  Peter  while  he  was 
in  the  Cathedral  at  Rome — from  Rome  he  went  to  Pompei 
where  he  saw  some  remnants  of  the  old  phallic  worship — 
the  big  toe  recalled  one  of  his  phallic  symbols  (as  a  child  he 
was  a  toe  sucker) — he  then  thought  of  fellatio  which,  he 
said,  no  longer  had  any  attraction  for  him  as  he  was  now 
heterosexual  and  very  pleased  over  it — he  then  stopped  and 
again  thought  of  St.  Peter  and  Rome  and  said:  "They 
stand  for  the  old  order  of  things,  strict  adherence  to  the  old 
orthodox  religion — they  are  against  all  reforms — Robes- 
pierre reminds  me  of  revolution,  complete  change  of  the 
order  of  things,  including  religion — they  stopped  worship- 


60  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

ping  Christ  and  worshipped  instead  the  Goddess  of  Reason, 
a  woman  of  questionable  reputation." 

His  stock  of  associations  was  exhausted  and  I  did  not 
urge  him  to  continue  as  I  could  now  interpret  his  mistake 
in  speaking.  When  he  was  about  to  leave  my  ofl&ce  he 
intended  to  visit  his  mistress  who  lived  in  the  Hotel  Robes- 
pierre. His  mistake  showed  his  unconscious  resistance 
to  heterosexuality.  He  would  still  prefer  to  cling  to  the 
"older  order  of  things,"  of  worshipping  the  man  rather 
than  the  woman. 

(^)  My  traveling  companion,  who  for  some  reason,  took 
particular  pleasure  in  raihng  at  the  medical  profession, 
remarked  once,  "The  most  appropriate  name  for  a  doctor 
I  ever  heard  of  I  read  in  this  morning's  Sun.  It  was  Dr. 
Slayers,  etc."  I  became  interested  and  asked  him  to 
show  me  the  article  and  to  his  surprise  the  name  was  not 
Slayers,  but  Salyers.  Here  his  unconscious  thought 
"Doctors  are  butchers"  took  advantage  of  the  close  simi- 
larity of  the  words  and  caused  this  metathesis. 

(j)  A  young  bride  who  was  obliged  to  remain  at  home 
on  Sunday  morning  and  transcribe  her  husband's  manu- 
script instead  of  attending  church,  as  was  her  custom, 
wrote  Bridle  March  instead  of  Bridal  March  and  parson 
instead  of  -person. 

(k)  On  re-reading  an  abstract  which  I  made  from  a 
foreign  journal  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  instead  of 
writing  "Markuse  even  went  so  far  as  to  recommend 
sexual  intercourse  as  a  therapeutic  agent  for  unmarried 
women"  I  wrote  "the  great  Markuse,  etc."  I  then  re- 
called that  while  reading  about  Markuse's  very  bold 
recommendation  I  was  most  surprised  and  said  to  myself 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY    LIFE  61 

"Such  courage  could  only  be  evinced  by  either  a  very 
great  or  an  eccentric  man"  and  knowing  the  scientific 
attainments  of  Markuse  I  readily  eliminated  the  second 
part  of  the  postulate.  Having  decided  that  he  was  a 
great  man  my  unconscious  thought  found  it  easy  to  pro- 
duce by  metathesis  from  Markuse  the  Greek  word  Makros 
(long,  big,  great). 

{I)  A  gentleman  of  leisure  who  up  to  the  age  of  forty  did 
nothing  constructive  decided  to  change  his  ways  after  he 
was  analyzed.  About  six  months  after  I  discharged  him 
as  cured  he  wrote  me  a  letter  in  which  he  said :  "  I  am  really 
making  a  strong  effort  to  find  some  suitable  vocation," 
he  betrayed  his  resistances  to  work  by  writing  "vacation" 
instead  of  "vocation." 

Mistakes  in  printing  are  of  a  similar  nature.  As  a 
classical  example  of  this  type  may  be  cited  the  "Wicked 
Bible"  so-called  from  the  fact  that  the  negative  was  left 
out  of  the  Seventh  Commandment.  This  authorized 
edition  of  the  Bible  was  published  in  London  in  1631 
and  it  is  said  that  the  printer  had  to  pay  a  fine  of  two 
thousand  pounds  for  the  omission. 

IV.  SYMBOLIC  ACTIONS 

Symbolic  actions,  according  to  Freud,  are  those  per- 
formances which  a  person  does  unconsciously  and  auto- 
matically and  which  he  considers  as  meaningless, 
indifferent  and  accidental  when  his  attention  is  called  to 
them.  Such  actions,  depending  on  their  determinations,  are 
either  simple  or  complicated  and  manifest  themselves  in 
either  such  insignificant  acts  as  scribbling  aimlessly  with 
one's  lead  pencil,  jingling  the  coins  in  one's  pocket,  kneading 
of  soft  substances,  etc.,  or  in  more  complicated  acts.     All 


62  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

such  performances  generally  conceal  sense  and  meaning 
for  which  any  other  outlet  is  closed. 

SymboHc  or  accidental  actions  can  be  observed  both 
among  normal  and  abnormal  persons.  They  are  of  special 
interest  to  the  doctor  who  finds  many  valuable  hints  for  the 
interpretation  of  symptoms  and  to  the  student  of  human 
nature  to  whom  they  tell  volumes.  The  popular  saying 
"actions  speak  louder  than  words"  is  especially  true  of  the 
manifestly  insignificant  and  accidental  ones.  Such  actions 
often  refer  to  a  person's  complexes,  which  show  a  tendency 
to  become  split  off  from  consciousness  and  repressed  into 
the  unconscious.  We  are  wont  to  look  at  everything  under 
the  guise  of  a  particular  complex.  Thus  the  misreading  of 
Slayer  for  Salyer  is  an  example  of  complex  constellation. 
This  gentleman  had  some  unpleasant  experiences  with  a 
doctor,  hence  the  misreading  is  merely  a  symbolic  expres- 
sion of  his  repressed  complex.  Such  complex  sj'-mbols 
are  expressed  in  pecuUar  complicated  acts.  Jung  cites 
the  case  of  a  young  lady  who  "  when  promenading  wished 
to  take  along  a  baby  carriage.  The  reason  for  this,  as 
she  blushingly  admitted,  was  because  she  desired  to  be 
looked  upon  as  married.  I  know  an  old  maid  who  wears 
a  wedding  ring,  especially  when  traveling.  Her  reason  for 
wearing  it  is  "because  it  was  my  grandmother's.  Other 
examples  of  symbolic  actions  are  the  following: 

(a)  A  woman  song  writer  and  poet  who  led  a  very  un- 
happy Hfe  continued  to  write  on  the  happiness  of  matri- 
mony and  just  before  she  obtained  a  divorce  she  gave  out 
a  song  entitled  "How  to  Keep  a  Husband."  Another 
writer  on  "The  Home  Beautiful"  recently  asked  the  court 
to  divorce  her  from  her  husband. 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY    LIFE  63 

(6)  A  noted  artist  and  writer  of  sonnets  on  the 
happiness  of  perfect  marriage  forsook  his  first  wife  for 
an  affinity,  maltreated  his  second  wife,  for  which  he 
was  arrested  and  punished,  and  now  that  he  is  finally- 
divorced,  he  is  going  through  similar  experiences  with  a 
third  wife. 

(c)  The  patient  to  be  mentioned  below,  while  despairing 
of  his  life  because  he  imagined  himself  afflicted  with  an 
incurable  disease,  continued  to  occupy  himself  with  Ibsen's 
"When  We  Dead  Awaken." 

(d)  A  New  York  embezzler  who  was  discovered  by 
detectives  in  a  Philadelphia  public  library  was  found 
reading  a  book  entitled  "Will  I  Ever  Go  Back?" 

(e)  The  selection  of  Washington  Irving's  Spectre  Bride- 
groom for  translation  in  the  aforementioned  example  is 
another  symboHc  action  of  this  kind.  Names  of  com- 
mercial houses  and  institutions  often  betray  similar  mechan- 
isms. Thus,  Sesrun  and  Yvel  mentioned  above  belong  to 
this  type.  Similar  examples  are  the  following:  A  hotel  for 
colored  people  at  a  neighboring  summer  resort  bears  the 
significant  name  of  "The  White  Isle."  The  home  for  the 
blind  is  named  "The  Light  House,"  and  our  street-cleaners 
are  called  "White  Wings."  Selections  of  certain  profes- 
sions are  usually  symbolic  actions.  Thus,  I  know  an  actress 
and  a  lawyer  who  are  very  bad  stutterers:  here  the  pro- 
fessions serve  to  conceal  the  real  defect,  for  no  one  would 
ever  think  that  an  actress  or  a  lawyer  could  lack  the  most 
essential  requirement  of  their  calhngs.  It  is  said  that  our 
blind  senator  greets  people  with  the  stereotyped  expression, 
"  Glad  to  see  you,"  and  always  holds  some  note-paper  in  his 
hands  while  addressing  an  audience. 


64  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

When  I  became  interested  in  this  question  I  asked  some 
of  my  confreres  how  they  came  to  study  medicine  and  I 
received  very  interesting  answers  of  which  I  will  mention 
two.  Dr.  W.  stated  that  since  his  early  youth  he  thought 
of  studying  medicine.  As  an  infant,  he  became  afflicted 
with  infantile  paralysis,  the  effects  of  which  he  still  shows, 
and  as  [the  doctors  could  not  help  him  he  thought  of 
finding  a  cure  himself.  Dr.  B.  could  give  no  definite 
reason,  but  finally  recalled  that  when  he  was  very  young 
he  overheard  a  conversation  between  his  mother  and 
another  woman.  The  latter  asked  his  mother  in  what 
month  he  was  born  and  on  being  told  that  it  was  October 
she  dryly  remarked  "He  will  be  either  a  doctor,  a  butcher 
or  a  murderer.  He  will  have  to  shed  blood."  As  he 
did  not  care  to  adopt  the  last  two  professions  he  became  a 
doctor.  Some  may  thing  that  the  compromise  includes 
them  all.  I  can  definitely  assert  that  in  this  case  it  was 
an  unconscious  process.* 

It  is  interesting  to  see  what  part  such  symbolic  actions 
play  in  every-day  life. 

(a)  A  young  married  woman  asked  her  husband  for 
money  to  make  some  purchases  on  their  way  home. 
While  talking  she  suddenly  threw  away  the  ten  dollar 
bill  as  though  it  were  a  valueless  piece  of  paper.  Her 
husband  noticed  it  and  picked  it  up  without  her  perceiving 
it.  Not  until  she  reached  the  store  did  she  notice  that 
she  had  lost  the  bill.  This  woman  was  wont  to  con- 
tribute ten  dollars  monthly  to  a  charitable  society  before 

*For  other  unconscious  motives  underlying  the  selection  of  certain 
vocations,  see  my  book  Fundamental  Conceptions  of  Psychoanalysis, 
p.  315.     Harcourt  Brace  and  Co.,  New  York,  1921. 


PSTCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY   LIFE  65 

her  marriage.  While  promenading  she  spoke  to  her 
husband  about  it  and  he  said  that  it  would  be  best  to 
stop  it  for  the  time  being,  to  which  she  had  to  acquiesce. 
It  was  after  this  conversation  that  she  threw  away  the 
bill.  This  action  was  the  equivalent  of  the  thought 
"You  do  not  allow  me  to  give  it  to  charity  so  I  throw  it 
away  so  that  some  poor  person  may  find  it."  That  is, 
it  was  meant  as  a  sacrifice. 

(6)  A  woman  continued  to  oversalt  everything  she 
cooked  for  her  husband.  At  the  same  time  she  persis- 
tently forgot  to  place  salt  on  the  table.  By  this  she 
meant  to  express  "I  am  in  love,  but  you  are  not."  For 
it  is  said  that  when  a  woman  is  in  love  she  oversalts  the 
food.  In  fact  she  always  talked  of  her  husband's  indiffer- 
ences and  her  ardent  love. 

Some  symbolic  actions  continue  to  manifest  themselves 
for  long  periods,  sometimes  for  life,  and  are  considered 
personal  characteristics  of  the  individual  evincing  them. 
Such  activities  are  very  often  only  reactions  of  some  re- 
pressed impulses  and  are  either  the  symbolic  expressions 
of  the  repressed  wishes  or  represent  contrasts  of  the  same. 
A  good  example  of  the  last  type  is  the  woman  to  be  men- 
tioned later  who  insisted  upon  paying  cash  for  everything. 
Another  example  of  this  kind  was  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
eight  years  who  was  very  religious  and  over-scrupulous  in 
everything.  In  fact  his  relatives  and  intimate  friends  con- 
sidered him  "a  bit  too  religious  and  over-conscientious." 
Examination  showed  that  his  outward  expression  of  piety 
and  conscientiousness  was  a  contrast  manifestation 
of  his  unconscious.  For  years  he  had  been  struggling 
with  sexual  temptations.     He  saw  sex  where  no  one  else 


66  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

did.  He  went  through  the  usual  conflicts  of  the  mastur- 
bator,  the  struggles  against  illicit  sex  and  finally  thought 
he  was  victorious.  For  two  years  before  he  came  to  me, 
he  led  what  he  called  "a  pure  life."  He  shunned  the 
society  of  women  and  his  moral  sensitiveness  verged  on 
eccentricity.  A  few  examples  obtained  from  himself 
will  show  his  personality.  When  a  woman  addressed 
him  and  asked  to  be  directed  to  a  certain  street  he  turned 
his  head  away  from  her  fearing  that  she  might  arouse  sex 
fancies.  He  was  once  present  at  a  social  gathering 
at  which  a  dispute  arose  between  a  young  man  and  a 
young  woman  as  to  who  was  the  taller  of  the  two.  To 
settle  this  they  stood  back  to  back  and  asked  the  others 
to  express  judgment.  He  became  excited  over  this  and 
left  the  room.  He  thought  that  their  action  was  immoral. 
Yet  while  he  was  an  ardent  member  of  the  church  and 
was  held  up  as  a  model  young  man  he  spent  hours  in 
disreputable  neighborhoods.  In  fact  his  time  was  divided 
between  the  church  and  the  slums.  To  be  sure  his  object 
in  frequenting  these  places  was  "to  do  good."  He 
wished  "to  eradicate  the  canker  that  eats  its  way  into 
innocent  minds."  To  effect  this  he  would  allow  himself 
to  be  accosted  by  prostitutes  and  then  have  them  arrested. 
On  a  few  occasions  he  really  yielded  to  temptation  which 
naturally  increased  his  zeal  for  "eradicating  the  canker." 
In  reality,  however,  he  did  all  these  things  because  he 
unconsciously  desired  them  and  his  every-day  piety  was 
a  symbolic  contrast  expression. 

Some  apparent  accidents  which  may  result  in  injury  or 
may  even  end  fatally  may  be  included  under  symbolic 
actions.     Prof.  Freud  and  others  have  reported  such  cases 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY   LIFE    •  67 

and  of  the  many  actions  of  this  type  studied  by  me  I  shall 
report  the  following : 

A  young  woman  of  twenty-seven  was  actively  courted 
by  two  men.  A.  was  jovial,  very  attractive,  but  unsteady. 
He  was  willing  and  at  times  even  anxious  to  love  much  but 
laughed  at  the  idea  of  marrying  her.  She  was  "madly  in 
love  "  with  him.  B.  was  an  old  friend,  tried  and  found  true, 
very  patient.  He  bored  her.  After  a  few  years  of  conflict, 
during  which  she  did  not  know  what  to  do — she  could 
neither  reject  one  nor  the  other — she  heard  rumors  that  A. 
was  very  interested  in  another  woman.  Indeed,  she 
became  convinced  that  A.  was  never  serious  with  her  and 
that  she  may  as  well  resign  herself  to  it;  but  all  her  friends 
knew  how  much  she  loved  him,  and  that  she  has  repeatedly 
threatened  to  kill  herself  in  the  event  of  his  finding  another 
girl.  After  brooding  over  the  situation  for  a  few  weeks 
she  met  with  a  serious  accident  in  which  she  was  severely 
burned.  She  was  dressed  in  neglig^,  and  while  carrying  a 
sterno  lamp  she  somehow  set  fire  to  her  gown.  But  it  so 
happened  that  she  had  filled  the  bath  tub  a  few  minutes 
before,  so  she  jumped  into  it  screaming,  attracting  the 
attention  of  her  old  friend,  B.,  who  was  waiting  to  visit  her. 
He  and  others  came  to  her  assistance,  extinguished  the  fire, 
leaving  her  with  pretty  severe  burns.  As  soon  as  I  heard 
of  it  I  suspected  that  it  was  a  symbolic  action,  and  on 
investigation  I  found  that  that  morning  she  received  a 
letter  from  A.,  but  as  she  promised  me  not  to  communicate 
with  him  or  receive  any  communications  from  him,  she 
was  about  to  send  it  back  to  him.  It  was  a  great  struggle; 
she  was  very  anxious  to  know  what  he  wrote,  but  she  sol- 
emnly promised  me  and  her  friends  to  cut  all  communica- 


68  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

tions  between  her  and  him.  It  was  while  holding  this  letter 
that  the  accident  happened,  which  incidentally  burned  the 
letter.  The  accident  solved  her  conflict;  she  did  not  send 
the  letter  back  to  him,  nor  did  she  read  it  herself.  In  this 
way  she  had  not  altogether  severed  her  relationship 
with  him.  On  the  other  hand,  she  redeemed  herself 
with  her  friends  by  actually  sustaining  some  physical 
injurj^,  which  might  have  resulted  fatally.  Her  injuries 
were  symbolic  of  the  suicide  with  which  she  threatened 
her  friends.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  was  invalided 
for  about  two  months,  during  which  time  she  lost  all 
affection  for  A. 

Symbolic  actions  of  long  duration  which  are  the  direct 
results  of  repressed  wishes  furnish  a  wide  field  for  collect- 
ing-manias or  peculiar  hobbies.  I  do  not  refer  to  those 
who  confine  their  activities  to  the  collection  of  valuable 
or  scientific  objects  such  as  books,  paintings,  etc.,  but 
I  mean  those  persons  who  collect  things  without  any 
definite  aim,  who  can  give  no  reason  for  their  activity 
and  whose  collections  as  such  are  of  no  scientific  value. 
I  can  best  explain  what  I  mean  by  giving  the  following 
examples : 

(a)  An  unmarried  woman  of  thirty-six  years  took  a 
great  interes'.  in  mushrooms.  She  not  only  took  her 
vacation  during  the  mushroom  season  so  as  to  be  able 
to  study  and  gather  them,  but  she  also  collected  many 
works  on  the  subject,  especially  those  containing  colored 
charts.  She  had  no  scientific  interest  in  the  subject  and 
could  give  no  reason  for  her  action.  She  only  knew  that 
mushrooms  fascinated  her.  Analysis  showed  that  she 
began   to   take   an   interest   in   mushrooms   a   few   years 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF    EVERY-DAY    LIFE  69 

before  while  she  was  on  her  vacation.  She  passed  a 
restless  night,  having  been  troubled  bj^  many  nightmares. 
While  taking  a  walk  early  in  the  morning  she  found  some 
mushrooms.  This  was  the  beginning  of  her  interest  in 
mushrooms.  Further  investigation  showed  that  at  the 
time  she  resisted  many  sexual  temptations  which  would 
also  account  for  her  insomnia  and  nightmares.-  The 
interest  for  mushrooms  was  aroused  by  their  resemblance 
to  the  penis.  Phallus  is  the  scientific  name  for  some 
species  of  mushrooms. 

(6)  Some  years  ago  while  traveUng  in  Europe  I  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  same  railroad  compartment  with  a 
western  gentleman.  He  was  a  hail-fellow-well-met  so 
we  soon  became  acquainted.  He  was  a  man  of  means 
who  was  travehng  for  his  health  and  discovering  that 
I  was  a  physician  he  soon  became  confidential.  He  told 
me  that  he  was  suffering  from  a  nervous  disease  and 
asked  me  to  recommend  him  some  professor  in  Paris. 
We  were  together  for  about  twelve  hours  and  as  we  had 
to  pass  two  boundary  lines  I  noticed  that  he  carried  with 
him  a  small  suit  case  which  he  guarded  very  carefully. 
It  was  filled  with  stick-pins  of  all  descriptions  which  he 
bought  as  souvenirs  in  every  European  city  of  importance. 
To  my  remark  that  he  must  have  a  great  many  very  good 
friends  to  buy  for  them  so  many  stickpins  he  replied 
that  they  were  not  meant  to  be  given  away.  He  stated 
that  he  would  not  be  foolish  enough  to  give  away  so 
many  valuable  presents,  but  that  he  collected  them  for 
his  pleasure.  "Some  people,"  he  said,  "when  they 
travel  collect  pictures.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  collect 
stickpins."     He  did  not  know  just  why  he  collected  them. 


70  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

"I  bought  a  few  for  myself,"  he  said,  "and  then  I  just 
kept  it  up." 

As  I  said  before  the  man  came  to  Europe  to  seek  relief 
from  a  nervous  trouble.  When  he  asked  me  to  recom- 
mend him  some  professor  I  was  compelled  to  ask  him  to 
explain  his  ailment  as  I  could  not  see  anything  organic- 
ally wrong  with  him.  He  then  told  me  that  he  has  been 
suffering  for  years  from  psychic  impotence  and  that  he 
had  consulted  many  specialists  in  the  United  States 
without  obtaining  any  relief  and  that  he  met  with  no 
better  success  in  Europe.  He  described  his  malady  in 
the  following  words:  "I  have  the  desire,  and  I  have  erec- 
tions when  I  am  alone,  and  sometimes  I  can  even  have 
an  erection  when  I  am  with  a  woman,  but  I  can't  stick  it 
in.  When  I  try  this  the  erection  fades."  May  we  not 
assume  that  his  collection  of  stick-pins  was  an  unconscious 
activity  to  get  that  which  he  most  desired  in  reality? 

In  this  connection  the  following  letter  will  be  of  interest; 
it  was  sent  to  me  by  a  gentleman  with  permission  for  publica- 
tion after  he  read  the  first  edition  of  this  book : 

"Dear  Doctor  Brill: 

"The  fascinating  habit  of  making  odd  collections  becomes  signifi- 
cant to  one's  mind  after  reading  in  your  book  about  the  man  who  col- 
lected stick-pins.  While  you  are  making  a  collection  of  collections  j'ou 
may  care  to  have  an  odd  one — a  true  tale  from  pioneer  days  of  Indiana. 

"My  grandfather  (1813-1896)  was  born  and  reared  a  strict  Scotch 
Presbyterian  and  played  the  part  all  his  life.  According  to  his  own 
word — whispered  to  a  few  in  the  old  days — he  was  quite  a  boy  among 
the  girls  and  sewed  some  wild  oats.  He  reared  a  family  of  nine,  was  a 
strict  disciplinarian,  a  regular  churchman,  thrifty,  active,  a  good 
farmer  and  horse-trader,  and  lived  well.  He  was  also  known  as  a  man 
of  pronounced  amorous  tendencies.  Even  after  he  was  seventy  years 
old  he  worried  his  old  rheumatic  wife  with  his  youthful  actions  until 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  71 

she  fairly  cried  out.  After  her  death  he  began  to  visit  some  "white- 
trash"  family  where  there  was  a  girl  who  received  men  for  compen- 
sation. He  intended  to  move  this  family  on  his  farm,  when  his  son  H. 
got  "wind"  of  it  and  set  fire  to  the  log  cabin.  He  married  a  second 
time  a  few  years  before  his  death  a  weU-preserved  woman  of  nearly 
seventy  years.  This  did  not  prevent  him  from  fondling  the  breasts  of 
the  hired  girls  whenever  he  was  able  to  do  so. 

"When  the  old  home  was  broken  up  and  grandfather  left  the  old 
place  to  his  sons,  they  found  tons  of  horseshoes  about  the  old  shop.  As  a 
child  I  looked  upon  that  old  shop  and  the  collection  of  horseshoes  with 
wonder.  Grandfather  would  pick  up  horseshoes  everywhere  in  the 
pubUc  road,  and  even  when  found  on  strange  farms.  He  was  never 
known  to  sell  them,  and  had  thousands  safely  stored  in  the  garret. 

"Did  every  horseshoe  represent  one  or  more  thoughts  of  a  lady's 
'seat  of  love'  to  this  dear  old  Scotch  churchman?" 


Whether  our  correspondent's  question  can  be  answered 
negatively  or  affirmatively  must  remain  open,  but  there  are 
many  points  in  the  case  favoring  the  assumption  that  this 
collecting  mania  was  a  symbolic  action  on  the  part  of  the  old 
gentleman.  He  unconsciously  collected  what  he  desired  so 
much  in  reality. 

Those  who  object  to  this  analysis  as  being  far-fetched, 
arguing  that  the  horseshoe  is  a  well-known  popular  talisman 
for  good  luck,  may  be  reminded  of  the  origin  of  this  popular 
belief.  Inman^  states:  "It  was  the  universal  practice 
among  the  Arabs  of  northern  Africa  to  stick  up  over  the 
door  of  their  houses  or  tents  the  genital  parts  of  a  cow, 
mare  or  female  camel,  as  a  talisman  to  avert  the  influence 
of  the  evil  eye.  The  figure  of  this  organ  being  less  definite 
than  that  of  the  male,  it  has  assumed  in  symbolism  very 
various  forms.  The  commonest  substitution  for  the  part 
itself  has  been  a  horseshoe,  which  is  to  this  day  fastened 
over  many  of  the  doors  of  stables  and  shippons  in  the 


72 


PSYCHOANALYSIS 


country,  and  was  formerly  supposed  to  protect  the  cattle 
from  witchcraft." 

Other  collecting  manias  that  came  to  my  notice  were  those 
of  three  men  who  collected  very  old  furniture.  As  far  as  I 
could  discover  there  was  no  special  object  in  these  collec- 
tions; the  old  furniture  was  bought  and  stored  away. 
These  three  collectors  were  old  bachelors  who  were  strongly 
attached  to  their  mother  ideals;  they  all  lived  in  the  past 
and  never  expected  to  marry. 

Some  of  the  collections  reported  to  me  were  extremely 
bizarre.  Thus,  I  heard  of  a  very  intelligent  man  who  col- 
lected the  cheap  collar  buttons  one  finds  in  laundered  shirts. 
He  asked  his  friends  to  save  those  buttons  for  him,  and  I 
was  told  that  he  is  the  happy  possessor  of  many  boxes  filled 
with  such  collar  buttons.  Another  man  is  collecting  corks. 
He  is  supposed  to  possess  many  thousands,  which  he  guards 
very  jealously.  A  young  girl  of  seventeen  years  is  an 
ardent  collector  of  candlesticks.  An  elderly  woman  sud- 
denly decided  a  few  years  ago  to  collect  pocketbooks;  she 
possesses  hundreds  of  pocketbooks  from  which  she  would 
not  part.  My  informer  tells  me  that  this  woman  could 
offer  no  explanation  for  her  strange  collecting  activity.  A 
similar  case  of  a  woman  who  collects  pitchers  was  recently 
reported  in  the  New  York  Times,  under  the  title  of  "  In  the 
House  of  the  Thousand  Pitchers." 

Collectors  of  the  type  here  described  are  not  indigenous 
to  our  own  age;  it  seems  that  they  have  always  existed. 
Pelman,"*  who  devotes  some  space  to  the  subject,  reports 
many  odd  cases  of  which  I  shall  mention  the  following: 

A  naval  officer  collected  uniform  buttons;  a  man  collected 
corkscrews  for  thirty  years;  the  obstetrician  Braun  collected 


PSYCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  73 

pubic  hair,  which  he  skilfully  acquired  while  examining  his 
patients.  The  most  curious  collection  was  left  by  Countess 
Chavan  Narischkin.  It  consisted  of  a  great  many  bed-pans 
belonging  to  historical  characters,  for  which  she  paid  fabu- 
lous sums.  Among  the  bed-pans  of  her  collection  were 
those  of  Ann  of  Austria,  Diana  of  Poitiers,  Mary  Stuart, 
Marie  Antionette,  Pompadour,  Du  Barry,  Catherine  II  of 
Russia  and  many  others. 

The  meaning  of  such  collecting  manias  is  often  apparent; 
there  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  all  symbolic  actions.  The 
collecting  mania  is  an  activity  motivated  by  the  uncon- 
scious. It  is  a  reaction  to  an  inner  feeling  of  voidness  con- 
cerning some  particular  craving.  This  is  best  seen  among 
the  insane,  who  often  show  the  collecting  mania  in  a  very 
pronounced  form.  Those  who  are  actively  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  psychiatry  know  how  troublesome  such  patients 
are.  They  constantly  fill  their  pockets,  the  lining  of  their 
clothes  with  rubbish  of  all  descriptions.  They  have  to  be 
searched  from  day  to  day,  otherwise  they  accumulate  heaps 
of  rubbish,  and  they  act  like  children  whose  toys  are  taken 
away  when  they  are  deprived  of  these  senseless  collections. 
When  they  are  at  home  they  often  fill  whole  rooms  with 
pieces  of  paper,  glass,  stones,  rags  and  similar  useless 
objects.  The  last  few  cases  observed  by  me  showing  such  a 
collecting  mania  were  all  controlled  by  delusions  of  poverty. 
One  of  these  patients,  a  woman  of  means,  collected  such 
rubbish  and  locked  it  up  in  her  safe.  When  I  asked  her  why 
she  collected  all  these  things,  she  said:  "Every  little  thing 
counts."  The  mental  deterioration  in  such  patients  blurs 
their  sense  of  value,  and  they  thus  blindly  follow  the  im- 
pulse.    This  impulse  may  be  a  reaction  to  delusions  of  pov- 


74  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

erty,  or  an  expression  of  insatiableness  found  in  children 
which  one  often  finds  in  mentally  deteriorated  patients. 

Music,  too,  is  used  to  give  expression  to  one's  complexes. 
While  doing  some  experimental  work  in  the  same  laboratory 
with  Dr.  L.  he  continued  to  whistle  for  hours  an  old  melody. 
It  was  the  refrain  from  the  old  song  "Don't  Be  Angry, 
that  cannot  be."  Having  been  acquainted  with  the  con- 
tents of  this  song  I  wondered  whether  his  mechanical 
whistling  expressed  the  feeling  of  a  rejected  love.  On 
asking  him  why  he  whistled  so  much  he  characteristically 
replied  "I  don't  know  myself."  I  then  asked  him  whether 
he  knew  what  he  was  whistling,  but  he  assured  me  that 
he  did  not.  "It  is  some  street  song,"  he  said.  "I  have 
a  habit  of  whistling  while  I  work."  I  then  told  him  the 
words  and  jokingly  asked  him  whether  he  had  been  rejected 
by  the  girl  he  loved.  He  emphatically  denied  it,  but  his 
emotional  reactions  only  strengthened  my  suspicion  so 
that  I  continued  my  investigations.  That  evening  we 
met  at  a  cafe  and  after  I  had  gained  his  confidence, 
he  disburdened  his  heart.  Only  the  evening  before  he  had 
proposed  and  had  been  rejected. 

These  examples  show  that  there  is  nothing  arbitrary  or 
fortuitous  in  our  actions.  No  matter  how  trivial  or 
voluntary,  analysis  always  shows  that  this  action  is  fully 
determined  by  unconscious  motives.  Those  who  beheve 
in  a  free  will  naturally  dispute  this  theory,  but  it  is  always 
possible  to  demonstrate  to  their  own  satisfaction  that 
whatever  they  consider  a  voluntary  act  done  with  a  free 
will  is  nevertheless  unconsciously  determined  by  definite 
motives.  One  of  my  unbelieving  patients  forgot  his 
umbrella  in  my  office  and  then  asked  me  to  explain  this 


PSTCHOPATHOLOGY   OF   EVERY-DAY  LIFE  75 

forgetting.  "  Surely,"  he  said,  "  I  did  not  wish  to  lose  a  new 
umbrella."  I  fully  agreed  with  him  for  if  he  wanted  to  lose 
it  he  would  have  left  it  elsewhere.  He  came  to  see  me 
daily  and  as  the  rain  ceased  during  his  visit  he  could  leave 
it  until  his  next  visit.  Moreover,  every  psychoanalyst 
knows  that  patients  who  are  pleased  with  the  treatment 
often  forget  things  at  the  doctor's  office.  This  simply 
means  that  they  expect  and  wish  to  return.  We  never 
forget  anything  valuable  where  we  do  not  wish  to  return. 
The  same  holds  true  for  losing  things.  We  never  lose  what 
we  value  highly  and,  other  things  being  equal,  whatever 
we  lose  we  usually  don't  want.  A  distant  relative  of 
Prof.  Freud,  who  on  account  of  family  jealousy,  disputed 
his  theories,  spoke  one  day  very  disparagingly  about  his 
theory  of  wit.  I  observed  that  he  had  no  conception  of  the 
subject  in  question  and  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him  this. 
His  excuse  was  that  he  could  not  read  the  whole  book 
because  he  lost  it.  Here,  of  course,  the  losing  was  inten- 
tional. An  excellent  example  of  definite  determinism  is 
related  by  Dr.  Ernest  Jones.  One  of  his  unbelieving 
acquaintances  produced  the  number  986  and  defied  him  to 
connect  it  with  anything  of  special  interest  in  the  mind. 
Jones  made  use  of  the  free-association  method  and  the 
acquaintance  recalled  the  following  associations:  Six  years 
before  on  a  very  hot  day  he  had  seen  a  joke  in  an  evening 
newspaper  which  stated  that  the  thermometer  had  stood 
986°  Fahrenheit,  evidently  an  exaggeration  of  98.6"  Fahren- 
heit. Jones  was  curious  to  know  why  this  memory  had  per- 
sisted with  such  vividness  as  to  be  so  readily  brought 
out,  for  with  most  persons  it  surely  would  have  been 
forgotten  beyond  recall  unless  it  became  associated  with 


76  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

some  other  mental  experience  of  more  significance.  The 
next  thought  was  the  general  reflection  that  the  conception 
of  heat  had  always  greatly  impressed  him,  that  heat  was 
the  most  important  thing  in  the  universe,  the  source  of  life 
and  so  on.  Jones  thought  that  the  young  man's  prosaic 
attitude  needed  some  explanation  and  he  therefore  pressed 
him  for  more  associations.  The  next  thought  was  of  a 
factory  stack  which  he  could  see  from  his  bedroom  window. 
He  often  stood  watching  the  flame  and  smoke  issuing  out 
of  it  in  the  evening  and  reflecting  on  the  deplorajDle  waste 
of  energy.  "Heat,  flame,  the  source  of  life,  the  waste  of 
vital  energy  issuing  from  an  upright  hollow  tube — it  was 
not  hard  to  divine  from  such  associations  that  the  ideas  of 
heat  and  fire  were  unconsciously  linked  in  his  mind  with  the 
idea  of  love,  as  is  so  frequent  in  symboHc  thinking,  and  that 
there  was  a  strong  masturbation  complex  present,  a  con- 
clusion that  he  presently  confirmed.  His  choice  of  a 
number  was  therefore  far  from  being  a  free  one,  being  in 
fact  related  to  a  very  significant  personal  constellation." 

As  an  example  of  how  one  takes  up  innocent  associations 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  vent  to  one's  complexes  I  will 
relate  the  following  episode : 

A  husband  read  a  joke  in  some  periodical  which  struck 
him  as  being  particularly  funny  so  that  he  laughed  heartily 
at  it  and  then  repeated  it  to  his  wife.  The  joke  was 
something  like  this:  Teacher  (to  class  of  boys):  ^'Having 
more  than  one  wife  is  'polygamy.  Now,  Johnny,  if  a  man 
has  only  one  wife  what  would  you  call  that?''  Johnny: 
"Monotony."  To  the  surprise  of  the  husband  his  wife 
was  not  at  all  affected  by  the  joke.  Indeed  she  couldn't 
see  why  he  laughed  so  much  over  it.     A  few  days  later 


PSTCHOPATHOLOGY    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE  77 

while  visiting  a  friend  the  conversation  tui'ned  to  the  general 
topic  of  man's  fickleness  and  so  on.  The  wife  wistfully- 
remarked:  "I  know  exactly  in  what  channels  Frank's 
(husband)  mind  runs"  and  to  explain  herself  she  repeated 
the  aforementioned  joke,  but  when  she  came  to  Johnny's 
answer   she   said    "Monopoly"   instead   of   "monotony." 

The  mistake  here  corrects  the  tendency  of  the  joke. 
She  dishked  to  hear  her  husband  laugh  over  a  joke  the 
underlying  thought  of  which  was  to  the  effect  that  one 
wife  means  monotony.  She  realized  that  his  hearty 
laughter  signified  his  agreement  with  the  thought  under- 
lying the  joke.  It  pained  her  to  think  that  her  husband 
should  find  her  monotonous  and  laugh  at  a  joke  that 
suggested  polygamy.  Her  mistake  cleverly  expressed 
her  disapproval  of  the  idea  implied  by  the  joke  and  at  the 
same  time  shows  in  what  she  believed.  She  wanted  a 
monopoly  on  her  husband. 

Such  complex  indicators  expressed  in  every-day  con- 
versations and  actions  are  not  rare.  The  careful  observer 
finds  them  everywhere.  For  nothing  can  be  concealed. 
Repressed  thoughts  forever  strive  to  come  to  the  sm'face 
and  just  as  the  insane  reaHze  their  ideals  in  their  insanities, 
we  reahze  their  wishes  through  our  dreams  and  in  the  "little 
ways"  of  every-day  life. 

References 

1.  Freud:  Psycho  pathology  of  Every-day  Life,  trans,  by  A.  A.  Brill. 
T.  Fisher  Unwin,  London. 

2.  Jones:  On  the  Nightmare,  Am.  Jour,  of  Insanity,  Jan.,  1910. 

3.  Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern  Christian  SymboUsm,  p.  114. 

4.  Psychische  Grenzzustande.     Cohen,  Bonn,  1910. 

5.  Jones:  Papers  on  Psycho-analysis,  p.  41.  Balliere  Tindal  &  Cox, 
London  1918. 


CHAPTER    III 

DREAMS 

Their  Structure  and  Mechanism,  Technique  of  Interpreta- 
tion,   Symbolism    and    their    Relation    to 
the   Neuroses   and  Psychoses 

"Der  miide  Gebundene  der  in  Fesseln  liegt  kann  nicht 
erwachen,  der  miide  Gebundene  traumt  von  Freiheit." — 
Hauptmann. 
'  /From  time  immemorial  dreams  have  been  the  subject 
of.  much  interest  and  speculation.  Since  the  early  Greek 
period  numerous  theories  about  dreams  have  been  pro- 
pounded and  entertained  in  the  realms  of  religion  and  of 
science^  but  ngt  until  within  recent  years  has  investigation  of 
dreams  proceeded  on  a  true  psychological  basis.  It 
would  be  superfluous  and  quite  impossible  to  review 
here  the  many  curious  theories  held  at  different  epochs 
in  the  world's  history  concerning  dreams;  suffice  it  to  say 
that  ancients  and  moderns  differ  very  little  in  their  views. 
The  ancient  Greeks  believed  that  the  dream  was  an  inspira- 
tion of  the  gods,  that  it  was  simply  a  warning  or  prophecy 
of  things  to  come  and  hence  always  gave  credence  to  it. 
Kindred  thoughts  are  expressed  in  the  Bible.  Joseph 
interpreted  all  dreams  as  a  foreboding  of  the  future,  "what 
God  is  about  to  do  he  showeth  unto  Pharoah;"  and 
as  the  Scriptures  inform  us  steps  were  immediately  taken 
to    prepare   for   the   approaching   famine.     These   views 

have    come    down    to   us    traditionally   and    disregarding 

78 


DREAMS  79 

here  the  numerous  scientific  and  pseudoscientific  theories, 
we  may  say  that  the  present  popular  belief  in  dreams 
differs  in  no  wise  from  that  of  the  classical  Greeks  and  the 
ancient  Egyptians.  Every  race  and  religion  still  looks  upon 
dreams  as  something  supernatural  and  objective,  as  an 
inspiration  coming  from  above;  and  the  laity  still  continues 
to  believe  in  their  importance.  The  gambler  dreams  his 
horses  or  lottery  numbers,  the  Indian  medicine  man  his 
remedies,  and  not  seldom  we  hear  even  of  "  dreams  coming 
true." 

Modern  psychology  has  continued  the  work  of  ancient 
writers  and  as  a  result  we  have  numerous  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  problem  of  dreams;  numerous  attempts 
have  been  made  to  show  the  relation  of  dreams  to  normal 
and  abnormal  life,^  but  so  far  as  I  know  no  author  has 
solved  the  problem  so  ingeniously  and  successfully  as 
Professor  Freud."  As  mentioned  previously,  in  developing 
his  psychology  of  the  psychoneuroses,  Freud  found  that 
dreams  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  psyche  of  the 
individual.  The  dream  is  not  a  senseless  jumble,  but  a 
perfect  mechanism  and  when  analyzed  it  is  found  to  contain 
the  hidden  fulfilment  of  a  repressed  wish;  it  always  treats  of 
the  inmost  thoughts  of  personahty  and  for  that  reason  gives 
us  the  best  access  to  the  unconscious. ''  No  psychoanalysis 
is  complete,  nay  possible,  without  the  analysis  of  dreams. 
The  dream  not  only  helps  us  to  interpret  symptoms,  but 
is  often  an  invaluable  instrument  in  diagnosis  and  treat- 
ment. The  causative  factors  of  the  neuroses  and  the 
psychoses  are  extremely  vague  and  mostly  unconscious  to  the 
patient,  and  it  is  by  means  of  dreams  that  the  underlying 
etiological  factors  are  often  disclosed. 


80  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

In  order  to  understand  the  mechanism  of  dreams  it 
will  be  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  Freud's  conception 
of  repression.^  To  forget  is  a  part  of  human  nature;  this 
is  so  obvious  that  we  never  even  stop  to  think  about  it. 
Yet  when  we  examine  the  things  forgotten  we  soon  find 
that  there  is  a  method  in  forgetting;  our  forgetting  seems 
to  follow  a  kind  of  selection.  It  was  Freud  who  first 
called  attention  to  the  motives  of  forgetting.  If  we 
exclude  organic  brain  disturbances,  we  find  that  we  are 
most  apt  to  forget  painful  or  disagreeable  impressions. 
This  forgetting,  as  everyone  knows,  is  purposeful  and 
desired.  The  individual  strives  at  all  times  to  rid  him- 
self of  the  unbearable  either  by  settling  the  situation  in 
question  when  possible  or  by  directly  crowding  it  out  of 
his  mind.  When  we  meet  with  mishaps  or  failures  to 
which  we  cannot  adequately  react,  we  grieve  over  them 
for  a  time  and  then  make  desperate  efforts  to  forget  them 
— that  is,  we  repress  them.  Moreover,  phantasies  which 
as  will  be  shown  later,  are  wishes  consciously  entertained, 
and  common  to  both  normal  and  abnormal  persons,  may 
be  of  a  disagreeable  nature,  or  present  something  unattain- 
able and  must  therefore  be  repressed.  It  often  happens 
that  such  phantasies  are  repressed  before  they  are  really 
grasped  by  full  consciousness.  Habitual  day  dreamers 
often  state  that  they  are  only  vaguely  conscious  of  what 
they  are  dreaming.  The  repressed  material,  or,  the 
complexes  are  pushed  into  the  unconscious  and  there  they 
remain  in  a  dormant  state.^  Now  and  then  they  are 
recalled  by  some  association,  but  like  disturbed  ghosts 
they  soon  return  to  their  resting  place.  The  experimental 
work  of  the  Zurich  school  has  likewise  shown  that  they 


DREAMS  81 

can  be  artificially  evoked.  In  this  country  this  has  also 
been  corroborated  by  many  observers.  Continuous  repres- 
sion is  not,  however,  always  possible,  and  as  I  shall  show 
later  whenever  there  is  a  failure  in  repression  a  splitting  of 
consciousness  may  result.  The  repressed  complexes  or 
past  emotional  experiences  then  strive  for  expression  and 
the  resultant  psychic  conflict  may  produce  a  psychosis  or 
neurosis.  In  brief  both  normal  and  neurotic  individuals 
resort  to  a  certain  amount  of  repression.  In  the  former 
this  usually  remains  inert,  manifesting  itself  only  now  and 
then  in  psychopathological  actions  or  dreams,  while  in  the 
latter  it  may  form  in  addition  symptoms  of  neuroses  or 
psychoses.^  But  no  matter  in  what  form  the  repression 
comes  to  the  surface — whether  in  the  form  of  dreams,  in 
psychoneurotic  symptoms,  or  in  the  utterances  or  other 
manifestations  of  the  insane — it  is  always  so  distorted  as 
to  be  unrecognizable  to  the  individual.  Neither  the  patient 
nor  the  persons  of  his  environment  have  any  idea  that  the  i 
resultant  illness  has  any  connection  with  his  past  experiences./ 
What  causes  this  concealment  or  distortion?  When  we 
examine  the  literature  of  the  past  and  present  we  observe 
that  writers  frequently  resort  to  all  sorts  of  detours, 
euphemisms  and  symbolisms  when  they  wish  to  express 
something  which  would  sound  either  harsh  or  objectionable 
to  polite  society.  Thus  we  find  that  the  words  "thigh" 
and  "staff"  are  often  used  in  the  Bible  to  express  that 
part  which  represents  the  male*  and  nowadays  journahsm 
makes  use  of  exactly  the  same  devices.  Witness  the  car- 
toons and  jokes  in  the  daily  papers.'  We  all  know  that 
many  of  the  jokes  of  our  best  comedians  would  be  con- 

*See  Genesis  xxiv,  2,  and  Ixvii,  29;  Hebrews  xi,  21. 
6 


82  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

sidered  extremely  offensive  if  direct  expression  were  given 
to  their  underlying  thoughts.  The  reason  why  such  mech- 
anisms are  necessary  is  quite  obvious.  It  is  the  fear  of  the 
censor.  We  all  know  what  would  happen  to  the  comedian 
who,  instead  of  uttering  some  innocent  quibble  as  "Willie 
Rose,  rose,  because  he  sat  on  a  pin"  would  venture  to  give 
the  bare  underlying  thought.  This  censor  is  the  product  of 
civilization  and  has  been  established  by  society  for  its 
own  protection,  the  stricter  the  censor  the  more  concealed 
and  funnier  are  the  means  of  representation.  The  distor- 
tions in  dreams  and  in  psychotic  symptoms  are  also  the 
work  of  the  psychic  censor.  This,  too,  is  a  protective 
mechanism  for  the  good  of  the  organism  and  the  older  the 
individual  or  the  race  the  greater  is  the  censorship;  primi- 
tives and  children  have  no  need  for  distortions.  One 
might  say  that  children  and  primitives  act  in  accordance 
with  their  true  feelings,  when  a  child  wants  something,  it 
makes  an  immediate  effort  to  procure  it  but,  as  it  grows 
older  and  dreams  about  the  things  that  it  cannot  get,  one 
has  no  difficulty  in  seeing  the  wish. 

The  formation  of  dreams  is  brought  about  by  the 
working  of  the  two  psychic  forces  (streams  or  systems), 
one  of  which  forms  the  wish  of  the  dream,  while  the  other 
exerts  its  censorship  on  this  wish  and  thus  produces  the 
distortion.  The  reason  for  our  belief  in  this  second 
psychic  force  possessing  the  power  of  censoring  is  as 
follows:  The  latent  thoughts  of  the  dream  are  not  known 
until  the  dream  has  been  subjected  to  analysis.  What 
we  remember  on  awakening  are  the  manifest  contents 
of  the  dream  emanating  from  the  former.  We  can  there- 
fore assume  that  the  admission  to  consciousness  is  the 


DREAMS  83 

prerogative  of  the  second  psychic  system.  Nothing  from 
the  first  system  can  reach  consciousness  without  having 
passed  through  the  second  system,  and  the  latter  allows 
nothing  to  pass  without  exercising  its  prerogative  of 
censoring.  At  the  point  of  transition  between  the  two 
systems  we  have  the  psychic  censor,  which  after  exercising 
its  function  allows  to  pass  only  that  which  is  agreeable  to 
it  or  concealed  from  it  and  restrains  everything  else. 
Whatever  is  rejected  by  the  censor  remains  in  a  state  of 
repression.  As  was  shown  this  psychic  censor  is  nothing 
but  the  inhibitions  formed  throughout  our  whole  Ufe  by 
our  civilizing  religious  and  ethical  training. 

As  mentioned  before  the  dream  is  divided  into  the 
manifest  and  the  latent  dream  contents.  The  former 
comprise  all  the  delusive  sensory  impressions  which  are 
recalled  by  the  dreamer  on  awakening;  while  the  latter 
comprise  the  fundamental  thoughts  of  the  dream  as  they 
existed  before  being  subjected  to  the  distortion  of  the 
psychic  censor.  The  manifest  content  of  the  dream  seems 
absurd  and  incoherent,  but  by  psychoanalysis  it  can  readilj'- 
be  translated  into  the  latent  thoughts,  which  always  show 
the  fulfilment  of  a  wish. 

When  we  watch  the  development  of  a  human  being 
especially  during  the  first  few  years  of  its  existence,  we 
are  particularly  impressed  with  one  fact,  to  wit :  that  the 
child  is  insatiable  in  its  desires.  As  soon  as  the  child 
sees  the  light  of  this  world  it  makes  known  its  wants  and 
as  soon  as  it  grows  older  they  become  proportionately 
greater.  At  first  these  desires  are  very  simple,  but  with  ad- 
vancing age  they  become  more  complicated.  Thus  a  child  of 
a  few  days  old  cries  when  hungry  or  uncomfortable,  while  at 


84  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

a  later  age  it  may  cry  because  it  is  not  rocked  to  sleep  or 
because  it  is  not  allowed  to  suck  its  thumb.  Here  we  no 
longer  deal  with  necessary  wants,  but  with  pleasurable 
desires;  for  the  child  could  fall  asleep  without  being  rocked 
and  could  get  along  without  thumb  sucking.  When  we 
observe  a  child  at  about  the  age  of  two,  or  at  an  older  age, 
we  can  clearly  see  that  it  is  a  constant  pleasure  seeker. 
All  its  activities  as  expressed  in  playing  and  other  manifes- 
tations are  directed  toward  the  reaUzation  of  both  neces- 
sary and  pleasurable  desires,  especially  the  latter,  and  the 
older  the  child  becomes  the  more  its  wants.  It  would  be  no 
exaggeration  to  assume  that  if  this  condition  were  allowed 
to  continue,  the  whole  world  would  be  too  small  to  supply 
the  wants  of  a  single  individual.  This  idea  is  very  well 
expressed  in  a  pretty  fable  which  I  read  years  ago,  I  beUeve 
in  Socin's  Arabic  Grammar.  The  story  tells  that  Alexander 
of  Macedon,  while  traveling  after  his  numerous  victories, 
one  day  came  unexpectedly  to  a  strange  place.  He  wanted 
to  enter,  but  the  door  was  locked.  He  knocked  on  the 
door  and  asked  to  be  admitted.  After  being  ignored  for 
some  time  he  was  finally  told  that  he  was  at  the  door  of 
Paradise  and  that  no  mortal  could  enter  there.  "But  I 
am  Alexander  the  Great,"  he  remonstrated.  "At  least 
give  me  some  memento  that  I  may  be  able  to  say  I  was 
here."  A  hand  was  extended  through  the  door  and  gave 
him  a  human  eye.  Alexander  was  chagrined  and  baffled. 
He  could  not  understand  the  significance  of  the  souvenir. 
In  his  distress  he  appealed  to  the  wise  men  of  his  entourage 
and  after  considerable  study  and  rumination  one  of  these — 
the  wisest  of  them  all — undertook  to  solve  the  riddle.  He 
ordered  that  a  scale  be  brought  and  he  placed  the  eye  upon 


DREAMS  85 

one  side  of  it.  He  placed  Alexander's  jewels  upon  the 
other.  The  eye  was  heavier.  More  gold  and  jewels  were 
placed  on  the  other  side,  but  the  eye  still  outweighed  the 
treasurers.  To  the  surprise  and  consternation  of  Alexander 
the  Great  no  amount  of  precious  stones  or  gold  was  heavy 
enough  to  counterbalance  the  eye.  The  scale  containing 
it  bore  down  steadily.  The  wise  man  thereupon  covered 
the  eye  with  some  earth  and,  behold!  the  scales  turned. 
The  eye  balanced  no  more  than  its  actual  weight.  The 
explanation  by  the  wise  man  was  as  follows:  the  eye 
uncovered  signifies  the  Hving  eye,  the  covered  eye  signifies 
one  dead.  While  man  lives  he  is  insatiable;  the  more  the 
eye  sees  the  more  it  desires.  Once  it  is  covered  with  earth 
it  has  no  need  of  anything.  This  souvenir  was  therefore 
intended  as  a  rebuke  to  Alexander's  unbridled  ambition. 
That  this  moral  lesson  left  little  impression  on  the  insa- 
tiable conqueror  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  died  of  his 
insane  excesses  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-two  years. 

To-day  there  are  no  mdre  worlds  to  conquer,  but  we 
are  all  Alexanders,  none  the  less.  Each  of  us  who  is  not 
afflicted  with  the  emotional  deterioration  of  the  Schizo- 
phrenic is  dominated  by  ambitions  and  never  can  be  per- 
fectly contented.  And  were  it  not  for  the  severe  checking 
the  individual  constantly  experiences  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  his  childhood,  which  causes  him  to  give  up  most  of 
his  desires,  it  would  be  impossible  to  live  in  any  society, 
savage  or  enlightened. 

This  inhibiting  process  begins  in  childhood  and  is  con- 
tinued throughout  life.  Thus  a  child  of  fifteen  months 
cries  for  a  bird  kept  by  her  parents  as  a  pet.  She  is  not 
satisfied  with  merely  looking  at  it  and  hearing  it  sing, 


86  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

but  she  wants  to  touch  and  handle  it.  As  this  would  be 
detrimental  to  the  well  being  of  the  bird  she  is  made  to 
forego  this  pleasure  in  spite  of  her  bitter  crying.  A  httle 
girl  of  four  years  wants  toys  belonging  to  other  children. 
She  is  very  unhappy  and  irritable  because  she  cannot 
get  them,  but  with  her  mother's  help,  she  finally  abandons 
this  desire.  At  an  earlier  age  this  same  child  uncere- 
moniously appropriated  other  children's  toys  and  it  was 
only  after  being  punished  that  she  desisted  from  this 
highway  robbery  and  developed  the  sense  of  property. 
So,  throughout  the  whole  coiu-se  of  our  existence,  society 
(religion  and  ethics)  teaches  us  to  curb  our  desires  and 
to  give  up  much  of  what  we  want.  We  want  very  much 
and  we  get  comparatively  little,  but  we  never  stop  wanting. 
When  we  try  to  examine  how  children  learn  to  give  up 
their  desires  we  are  soon  struck  by  the  fact  that  they 
never  really  give  up  anything  entirely.  A  girl  of  four 
years  after  being  told  by  her  mother  that  she  cannot  get 
a  certain  toy  which  she  saw  in  the  hand  of  another 
child,  brooded  over  it  for  a  while  and  then  drew  on  the 
sidewalk  with  chalk  what  she  thought  was  a  picture  of 
this  toy  and  played  with  it  as  though  it  were  the  real  toy. 
The  little  girl  of  fifteen  months  forgets  the  bird  and  is 
always  appeased  when  she  gets  a  wooden  bird  or  a  picture 
book  of  birds.  You  all  know  how  boys  ride  on  sticks  for 
want  of  horses  and  that  nearly  all  the  games  played  by 
children  represent  unattainable  desires.  Nor  do  we 
see  those  actions  only  in  early  Hfe  when  the  child  cannot 
differentiate  between  fiction  and  reality.  If  we  continue 
to  observe  we  find  that  these  same  children  as  they  grow 
older  and  know  that  a  stick  is  not  a  horse  and  that  a 


DREAMS  8/ 

drawing  of  a  toy  is  not  a  real  toy,  nevertheless  still  en- 
deavor to  attain  in  fancy  what  they  want.  Thus  a  little 
boy  goes  to  the  Zoological  garden  where  he  sees  tigers. 
He  remarks  that  he  would  like  to  have  a  few  tigers.  His 
father  laughs  at  him  and  points  out  that  he  would  have  no 
room  for  them  in  the  apartment  if  he  had  them.  The  boy 
then  dreams  that  he  had  j5ve  little  tigers  in  a  bird  cage 
hanging  in  his  room.  Such  examples  show  that  the  human 
mind  possesses  the  faculty  of  overcoming  difficulties  and 
attains  its  desires  in  spite  of  the  obstacles  raised  by  nature 
and  society  or  rather  by  reality.  This  mode  of  coping  with 
reality  forms  the  basis  of  Prof.  Freud's  theory  of  wish 
fulfilment.  In  brief  this  theory  states  that  whatever  is 
denied  us  in  reality  we  can  nevertheless  realize  in  some  other 
way.  In  his  sleep  the  poor  man  has  much  money,  the 
prisoner  his  freedom,  the  lame  man  runs  races,  and  the 
ambitious  man  sees  himself  at  the  goal  of  his  ambition. 
In  other  words,  the  dream  when  analyzed  represents 
the  realization  of  a  wish;  its  motive  is  a  wish. 

In  this  respect  dreams  are  divided  into  three  classes: 
1.  Those  which  represent  an  unrepressed  wish  as  fulfilled, 
as  seen  in  the  so-called  convenience  dream  and  in  chil- 
dren's dreams.  For  example,  we  often  dream  of  enjoying 
cold  fresh  water  after  a  supper  of  sardines,  olives  or  other 
salty  food.  The  thirst  incites  the  dream  which  tries  to 
appease  the  sleeper  so  as  to  avoid  disturbance  of  sleep. 
A  boy  of  five  dreams  of  finding  pennies  and  nickels  and 
on  awakening  expresses  his  disappointment  by  crying  for 
his  money.  A  little  girl  of  four  dreams  of  chocolate 
almonds  and  on  awakening  insists  that  someone  has 
taken   her    "big   box   of   chocolate   almonds."     2.  Those 


i^ 


88  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

which  represent  the  realization  of  a  repressed  wish  in  an 
entirely  concealed  form,  examples  of  which  I  shall  give 
later.  3.  Those  which  represent  the  realization  of  a 
repressed  wish  in  a  form  insufficiently  or  only  partially 
concealed.  The  last  group  of  dreams  is  generally  accom- 
panied by  anxiety,  which  interrupts  the  dream  and  takes 
the  place  of  the  distortion  found  in  the  second  group.  Dreams 
accompanied  by  anxiety  are  of  a  gross  sexual  nature; 
the  ideation  causing  the  anxiety  in  the  dream  once  be- 
longed to  a  wish  which  was  later  subjected  to  repression.^ 
There  are  some  dreams  of  a  painful  nature  which  are  not, 
however,  perceived  as  such  by  the  dreamer.  These  merely 
show  the  insignificance  and  lack  of  psychic  validity  of  the 
dream,  but  they  do  not  show  a  true  wish.  Thus,  one  of 
my  patients  dreamed  that  she  saw  her  oldest  boy  laid  out 
in  a  casket,  and  yet  she  was  totally  unconcerned  about  it. 
Having  been  told  previously  that  a  dream  represents  the 
hidden  fulfilment  of  a  wish  she  now  insisted  that  this  theory 
must  be  wrong,  as  she  would  never  entertain  any  such 
wish  regarding  her  boy.  Psychoanalysis,  however,  revealed 
the  following  facts:  her  husband  had  died  and  left  her  with 
two  children;  she  had  then  married  a  widower  with  two 
children.  They  were  very  happy,  but  as  they  already  had 
four  children  they  could  not  afford  to  rear  any  more.  She 
has  frequently  expressed  the  wish  "to  have  an  offspring  as 
the  result  of  her  second  marriage,  as  it  would  strengthen 
the  union,  but  having  four  children  in  the  family,  this  was 
out  of  the  question."  The  dream  fulfils  her  wish  by  show- 
ing her  that  there  are  only  three  children  in  the  family. 

A  man  of  thirty  dreamed  that  he  saw  his  brother's  head 
split  open  and  bleeding  and  was  not  at  all  worried  about  it. 


DREAMS  89 

He,  too,  objected  to  the  theory  of  wish  fulfilment.  Analysis 
showed  that  he  referred  to  his  brother  M.,  a  boy  of  sixteen 
years,  whom  he  had  thought  incorrigible.  He  had  read 
recently  an  article  in  a  Sunday  newspaper  saying  that  bad 
boys  could  be  cured  by  trephining  the  skull  and  exposing 
the  brain — which  at  once  caused  him  to  think  of  his  brother. 
The  dream  realized  his  wish  by  showing  him  his  brother 
with  his  brain  exposed. 

Recently  a  patient  came  to  me  and  disputed  the  theory 
of  wish  fulfilment.  To  prove  his  assertion  he  stated  that 
the  night  before  he  had  dreamed  that  he  had  syphilis. 
I  could  readily  prove  that  the  dream  showed  the  realiza- 
tion of  a  wish.  This  patient  was  being  treated  by  me  for 
psychosexual  impotence  and  the  day  before  his  dream  we 
discussed  promiscuous  sexuality.  I  called  his  attention 
to  the  dangers  of  infection  and  spoke  about  proper  pre- 
cautions, etc.  He  grimly  remarked  "There  is  po  danger 
of  my  becoming  infected.  I  couldn't  if  I  tried."  The 
dream  realized  his  wish  that  he  could  become  infected; 
meaning  that  he  would  be  no  longer  sexually  impotent. 

vStill  another  patient  suffering  from  the  same  disease 
dreamed  that  he  was  bald.  He  too  objected  to  the 
theory  of  wish  realization  inasmuch  as  he  is  only  thirty- 
five  years  old  and  he  surely  would  not  like  to  be  bald.  I 
told  him  that  except  with  children  and  so-called  conveni- 
ence dreams,  a  dream  should  never  be  judged  by  the  mani- 
fest content.  When  he  began  to  give  "free  associations" 
to  the  dream  he  suddenly  thought  of  a  smutty  joke  which 
he  was  unwilling  to  reproduce.  I  insisted  that  he  should 
tell  me  everything,  otherwise  the  analysis  would  have  to  be 
dropped.     The  joke  is  credited  to  one  of  our  witty  states- 


90  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

men  and  tells  how  at  a  social  gathering  a  young  lady  heard 
this  statesman  use  the  word  "eunuch."  Not  knowing  the 
meaning  of  the  word  she  then  turned  to  the  statesman  and 
said  "  Mr.  X — ,1  heard  you  use  the  word  'eunuch.'  What  is 
a  eunuch?'  The  statesman  was  embarrassed  and  hesitatingly 
answered"  A  eunuch  is  a  balled  (bald)  man."  The  young 
lady  looked  at  his  head  and  said  "Then  you  are  a  eunuch. 
"Oh,  no,"  he  replied,  "I  am  too  bald  (two  balled)."  My 
patient  heard  this  j  oke  the  day  before  the  dream  and  he  laugh- 
ed very  heartily  over  it,  but  his  loud  and  prolonged  laughter 
was  only  hiding  his  inner  pain,  for  this  smutty  joke  brought 
to  mind  his  own  complex;  he  was  a  eunuch  himself.  The 
dream  was,  therefore,  a  reaction  of  this  mental  pain  and 
showed  him  that  he  was  not  a  eunuch.  He  is  too  bald 
(two  balled)  like  the  statesman  in  the  story.  The  other 
determinants  are  the  identification  of  the  bald  head  with 
the  head  of  the  penis,  an  identification  which  I  have 
repeatedly  observed  in  dreams  and  psychoses.  One  of 
my  patients,  a  young  prsecox,  had  one  mannerism  which 
was  shown  by  a  constant  rubbing  of  the  top  of  the  head. 
After  doing  this  for  a  few  months  he  had  a  good-sized 
tonsure  which  was  rapidly  increasing.  I  could  definitely 
ascertain  that  the  patient  went  through  a  form  of  masturba- 
tion. When  he  was  admitted  to  the  hospital  he  mastur- 
bated frequently  and  shamelessly  so  that  he  had  to  be 
constantly  watched  by  the  attendants.  He  gradually 
began  to  rub  his  left  hand,  then  his  arm  and  finally  the  top  of 
his  head.  It  was  a  clear  presentation  of  the  mechanism  of 
displacement  from  below  to  above  so  often  observed  in 
conscious  and  especially  unconscious  mental  actions. 
Another  determinant  for  the  baldness  in  this  dream  is  the 


DREAMS  91 

fact  that,  like  sexual  impotence,  baldness,  too,  is  considered 
as  a  sign  of  physical  weakness  and  senile  decay.  These 
examples  show  that  even  dreams  which  are,  in  the  manifest 
content,  the  opposite  of  wishes,  nevertheless  contain  a 
wish  when  we  find  the  latent  content. 

The  dreams  just  given  show  well  what  the  function  of  I 
the  dream  is.     In  all  of  them  the  dreamer  had  a  problem  I 
to  solve.     Consciously  or  unconsciouslj'-  the  dreamers  were  \ 
absorbed  and  worried  by  the  problems  involved  and  the    C 
effort  was  made  to  solve  them  or  realize  the  unattainable.     1 
In  other  words  the  actual  thoughts  had  to  be  subjected  to    / 
many  delicate  processes  before  they  assumed  the  form  o^ 
the  manifest  dream.     How  is  that  accomplished? 

The  transformation  of  the  latent  into  the  manifest 
content  of  the  dream  is  effected  as  follows  by  the  so-called 
"dream  work:"  During  our  waking  state  a  number  of 
thought  structures  are  constantly  being  formed.  This 
activity  is  never  finished  during  the  day,  and  the  sum  of 
energy  required  for  the  production  of  these  thoughts  would 
be  sufficient  to  hold  the  interest  of  the  individual  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  interfere  with  sleep.  This  tension  can 
only  be  set  free  by  granting  the  individual  his  wishes, 
that  is  to  say,  the  day  remnants  which  contain  these 
wishes  must  be  changed  into  dreams  which  realize  the 
dreamers  strivings  and  thus  remove  the  elements  threatenr 
ing  disturbance  of  sleep.  The  dream  is,  therefore,  the 
guardian  of  sleep.  But  in  order  that  the  dream  work  may 
act  properly  the  day  remnants  must  be  capable  of  wish 
formation,  for  it  is  the  wish  that  forms  the  nucleus  of  the 
dream. 

When  we  compare  the  latent  thoughts  of  the  dream  with 


92  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

its  manifest  content  we  find  that  the  former  is  per- 
fectly comprehensible  as  soon  as  we  discover  it,  while 
the  latter  is  usually  incomprehensible  and  absurd  and 
comparable  to  hieroglyphics  or  a  rebus.  We  are  also 
struck  by  the  marked  condensation,  which  takes  place  in 
the  transformation  of  the  thought  into  the  content  of 
the  dream.*  The  manifest  dream  when  written  may 
fill  a  few  lines,  while  the  analysis  containing  the  thoughts 
underlying  the  dream  usually  fills  many  pages.  This 
condensation  is  effected  by  the  omission  and  the  subse- 
quent compression  of  syllables,  words,  pictures  or  situa- 
tions which  have  been  present  in  the  thoughts  underlying 
the  dream.  This  accounts  for  the  many  gaps,  absurdities 
and  neologisms  in  the  manifest  content  of  the  dream. 
Thus,  one  of  my  German  speaking  patients  saw  a  monkey  in 
his  dream,  and  by  freely  associating  to  the  word  "monkey" 
we  got  monkey — chimpanzee — Schimpfen  Sie  McKenzie 
(which  may  be  translated  here  by  "Give  it  to  him, 
McKenzie  ")•  This  recalled  a  quarrel  between  two  laborers, 
McKenzie  and  X.  the  day  before  the  dream.  The  patient 
actually  heard  this  very  exclamation,  "Give  it  to  him, 
McKenzie,"  and  as  a  diligent  student  of  English  he  imme- 
diately translated  it  into  the  above  German  sentence. 
This  is  further  determined  by  the  fact  that  the  features 
of  the  pugnacious  McKenzie  made  him  think  of  a  monkey 
and  that  the  quarrel  took  place  near  a  zoological  garden. 
It  is  through  this  process  of  condensation  that  the  mani- 
fest thoughts  of  the  dream  are  "overdetermined."  The 
individual  thoughts  of  the  dream  are  not  only  repre- 
sented in  the  dream  by  many  elements,  but  the  elements 
*Condensation  is  a  fusion  of  events,  pictures  and  elements  of  speech. 


DREAMS  93 

of  the  dream  are  manifoldly  determined  by  the  thoughts 
of  the  dream.  In  the  analysis  of  dreams  one  often  finds 
all  kinds  of  composites  such  as  composite  pictures  and 
collective  personalities,  all  of  which  are  produced  b}'^  this 
process  of  condensation. 

Another  effect  of  the  dream  work  is  brought  about  by 
the  process  of  displacement.  Thus  the  elements  which 
seem  most  conspicuous  in  the  content  of  the  dream  do 
not  necessarily  have  corresponding  importance  in  the 
thoughts  of  the  dream.  An  insignificant  element  may 
represent  the  main  thought  and  vice  versa,  events,  thoughts, 
sentences,  words  and  pictures  may  be  turned  around. 
By  the  process  of  overdetermination  the  psychic  validity 
of  the  main  element  may  be  displaced  or  transferred  to 
some  triviality.  The  same  process  is  met  in  the  obsessions 
of  neurotics.^  The  formation  of  the  dream  is  chiefly  due 
to  these  two  processes  of  displacement  and  condensation. 

Besides  the  processes  of  condensation  and  displace- 
ment which  we  have  found  so  effective  in  the  transfor- 
mation of  the  latent  into  the  manifest  thoughts  we  must 
take  into  account  two  other  factors,  viz.,  the  manner  of 
representation  and  the  secondary  elaboration,  to  which 
I  shall  only  allude.  There  is  no  intellectual  activity  in 
the  dream.  What  in  the  manifest  content  impresses  us 
as  a  process  of  reasoning  or  judgment  is  not  due  to  the 
work  of  the  dream,  but  has  reached  the  manifest  content 
from  the  thoughts  of  the  dream  to  which  it  properly  be- 
longed. Logical  relationships  are  not  represented  in  the 
dream.  The  dream  makes  use  of  visual  pictures,  which 
are  reproduced  by  similarity,  identification  and  symboliza- 
tion.     Thus  a  dreamer,  wishing  to  express  that  his  business 


94  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

competitor  was  getting  the  better  of  him,  dreams  that  he  and 
his  competitor  are  running  to  catch  a  steamer  and  that  the 
latter  is  way  ahead  of  him.  Their  business  was  carried  on 
by  steamer  transportation.  The  affects  are  not  influenced 
by  the  dream  work,  though  they  are  very  often  displaced. 
The  dream  also  omits  all  the  "ifs"  and  ''buts"  and  whatever 
may  be  in  the  subjunctive  mood  in  our  waking  state  is 
transferred  into  the  indicative  present  in  the  dream. 
This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  in  the  dream  the  blind 
see,  the  lame  run  and  the  poor  are  wealthy.  The  "if  I 
were"  is  changed  in  the  dream  into  "I  am." 

To  illustrate  the  relation  of  the  dream  to  the  neurosis  I 
shall  cite  the  following  case: 

Case:  Miss  G.,  twenty-eight  years  old,  American,  came  to  me  in 
January,  1908,  because  she  had  been  "very  nervous"  for  about  three 
months.  Her  family  history  showed  that  her  father  died  of  nephritis 
and  had  a  "stroke"  (left  hemiplegia)  a  few  months  before  he  died. 
She  had  been  well  until  three  months  before.  Since  then  she  had 
suffered  from  insomnia,  irritabiUty,  loss  of  appetite,  constipation, 
headache,  uncalled  for  worry,  crying  spells  and  anxious  expectation. 
Her  mother  stated  that  she  had  entirely  changed,  that  she  expressed 
pessimistic  ideas,  often  repeating  that  she  would  like  to  die.  Exami- 
nation showed  all  the  symptoms  enumerated.  The  patient  was 
pretty,  she  showed  no  stigmata  and  was  above  the  average  in  intelli- 
gence. While  reciting  her  storj'  she  showed  the  typical  belle  indiffer- 
ence often  found  in  hysteria.  She  smiled  when  I  asked  her  why  she 
felt  so  depressed  and  could  give  no  reason  for  it.  She  knew  that  she 
really  had  nothing  to  worry  about  and  that  she  had  everything  to  live 
for,  yet  she  could  not  "shake  off  the  blue  feeling."  One  of  the  most 
distressing  thoughts  was  that  something  might  happen  to  her  mother. 
To  those  acquainted  with  the  language  of  hysteria  this  means  just  the 
opposite.  It  was  merely  a  reaction  of  the  wish  that  she  might  lose  her 
mother,  and,  as  we  shall  see  later,  there  was  a  reason  for  that  wish. 
Physically  there  was  nothing  worth  mentioning.  I  diagnosticated 
the  case  as  a  mild  anxiety  hysteria^"  with  imperfect  conversion. 


DREAMS  95 

I  saw  her  a  number  of  times,  but  made  no  progress  in  the  treatment. 
To  my  question  she  always  answered  "  I  feel  about  the  same."  I  then 
thought  of  psj^choanalysis  and  with  that  in  view  I  asked  her  to  write 
out  her  dreams  and  bring  them  to  me.  She  was  sure  that  she  never 
dreamed  except  when  her  stomach  was  out  of  order,  but  promised  to 
comply  with  my  request  if  ever  she  should  and  one  day  brought  me 
the  following  dream : 

"/  dreamed  that  I  was  in  a  lonely  country  place  and  was  anxious  to 
reach  my  home  in  Ldconow  or  Liconor  Bay,  but  could  not  get  there.  Every 
time  I  made  a  move  there  was  a  wall  in  the  way.  It  looked  like  a  street 
full  of  walls.  My  legs  were  as  heavy  as  lead.  I  could  only  walk  very 
slowly  as  if  I  were  very  weak  or  very  old.  Then  there  was  a  flock  of 
chickens,  but  that  seemed  to  be  in  a  crowded  city  street,  and  they — the 
chickens — ran  after  me  and  the  biggest  of  all  said  something  like  "Come 
with  me  into  the  dark." 

This  dream  seems  absurd  enough  and  as  the  dreamer 
remarked,  "It  is  so  ridiculous  that  I  am  ashamed  to  tell 
it.  Whoever  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  chickens  talking?" 
She  was  assured  that  it  must  mean  something  and  the 
analysis  proceeded. 

It  would  be  too  long  and  immaterial  for  the  purposes 
of  this  work  to  give  here  the  whole  analysis  which,  when 
recorded,  covered  over  eight  pages  of  foolscap.  Only 
the  principal  associations  and  symbolic  expressions  neces- 
sary to  explain  the  dream  will  be  enumerated. 

On  asking  the  dreamer  what  the  most  vivid  part  of  the 
dream  was  she  answered  that  it  was  the  second  part 
relating  to  the  chickens.  When  asked  to  repeat  the 
thoughts  evoked  by  concentrating  her  mind  on  the  word 
"chickens"  she  gave  the  following:  "I  could  only  see 
the  biggest  chicken,  all  the  others  seemed  blurred;  it  was 
unusually  big  and  had  a  very  long  neck  and  it  spoke  to 
me — The  street  recalls  where  I   used  to  go  to  school — I 


96  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

graduated  from  public  school  when  I  was  thirteen — The 
block  was  always  crowded  with  children  from  school" — 
she  then  began  to  blush  and  laugh  and  when  asked  to 
explain  her  actions  said:  "It  recalls  the  happy  school 
days  when  I  was  young  and  had  no  worries — I  even  had 
a  beau,  a  pupil  from  the  male  department.  There  was 
a  male  and  female  department  in  the  same  school  and 
most  of  my  girl  friends  had  beaux — we  used  to  meet  after 
school  hours  and  walk  home  together.  My  beau's  name 
was  F.  He  was  lanky  and  thin  and  the  girls  used  to 
tease  me  about  him.  Whenever  they  saw  him  coming 
they  said,  'Belle,  here  comes  your  chicken' — that  was 
his  nickname  among  the  boys.  On  being  asked  if  she 
now  understood  who  the  chicken  in  the  dream  was  she 
laughingly  said:  "You  don't  mean  to  say  that  the  chicken 
with  the  long  neck  was  Mr.  F?"  When  asked  if  she  still 
kept  up  her  acquaintance  with  Mr.  F.  she  stated  that  she 
had  not  seen  him  for  the  last  few  months,  but  prior  to 
that  she  saw  him  quite  often.  On  further  analysis  it  was 
found  that  this  early  schoolday  love  was  still  kept  up. 
He  had  proposed  to  her  no  less  than  three  times,  but  she 
had  never  given  him  any  definite  answer.  She  only  "liked " 
him  and  her  family  opposed  him  on  account  of  his  financial 
position.  The  last  time  she  met  him  was  at  a  military  ball. 
He  was  an  officer  of  a  military  organization  and  "he  looked 
quite  handsome  in  his  smart  uniform."  He  danced  with 
her  and  "was  very  kind,"  but  he  did  not  propose.  She 
frankly  admitted  that  she  looked  for  a  fourth  proposal  at 
this  ball  and  that  she  was  quite  ready  to  accept  him. 
She  had  heard  only  recently  that  he  was  paying  attention  to 
another  young  lady,  a  thing  which  caused  her  considerable 


DREAMS  97 

annoyance — to  put  it  in  her  own  words,  "  I  can  only- 
blame  myself  and  I  will  have  to  forget  it." 

We  see  that  the  most  impossible  and  ludicrous  part  of 
the  dream,  that  is,  "the  talking  of  the  chicken,"  is  now 
quite  plain.  The  "chicken"  is  simply  the  nickname  of 
Mr.  F.,  who  is  the  hero  of  the  dream.  There  were  other 
chickens,  but  they  were  blurred,  that  is,  there  were  other 
young  suitors,  but  they  were  relegated  to  the  background. 

The  chicken  said  "Come  with  me  into  the  dark."  The 
w^ord  "dark"  evoked  the  following  associations:  indis- 
tinct— obscure — mystery — marriage.  She  recalled  that 
after  her  father's  death  her  mother  once  spoke  sympathet- 
ically of  Mr.  F.  saying  "Money  is  not  all,"  and  philoso- 
phized on  marriage  in  the  following  remarks:  "You  will 
never  know  a  man  until  you  have  eaten  a  peck  of  salt 
with  him"  and  "Marriage  is  a  mystery,"  These  words 
made  a  deep  impression  on  her  and  the  last  Biblical 
quotation  frequently  recurred  to  her.  We  then  see  that 
in  her  mind  the  word  ''dark"  was  used  synonymously 
with  mj'-stery  and  marriage,  and  hence  we  can  under- 
stand its  meaning  in  the  chicken's  speech.  Briefly  stated 
it  was  the  fourth  proposal  of  Mr.  F. 

The  first  part  of  the  dream  reads,  "I  ivas  in  a  lonely 
country  place,  etc.  "  She  stated  that  she  recalled  the  beautiful 
country  around  H.  Bay  where  she  had  been  the  preceding 
summer.  She  could  not  quite  understand  what  Liconow 
or  Liconor  Bay  meant  and  gave  the  following  associations : 
Liconow — Lucknow — meaning  a  painting  representing  the 
famous  battle  of  Lucknow  which  she  had  recently  seen. 
The  soldiers  recalled  the  military  organization  at  whose  ball 
she  had  met  Mr  F.     The  word  "Liconor  "suggested  by  sound 


98  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

association  Lucarno  and  Lugano,  two  places  which  she  had 
visited  while  abroad  two  years  before.  H.  Bay  often  recalled 
the  beautiful  Italian  lakes,  Lucarno  and  Lugano,  whither  she 
hoped  to  go  on  her  honeymoon.  Finally,  Liconor  Bay 
resolved  itself  into  LIK-ONOR  BAY  which,  by  sound 
association,  can  be  readily  recognized  as  like,  honor  and 
obey."  If  "like"  is  substituted  by  "love"  it  gives 
the  familiar  formula  well  known  to  all  maidens  seriously 
comtemplating  matrimony.  The  dreamer  used  "like," 
because,  as  aforesaid,  she  thought  she  only  "liked." 
Such  condensations  of  words  and  ideas  are  not  at  all  rare 
in  dreams. 

If  we  now  rewrite  the  first  sentence  it  will  read  as  fol- 
lows: "  I  was  in  a  lonely  country  place  and  was  anxious  to 
reach  my  home  in  'LIKe  (love),  hONOR,  and  oBEY,'" 
that  is,    I  was  lonely  and  anxious  to  get  married." 

The  next  sentence  reads  "But  could  not,  etc."  She 
stated  that  her  legs  "were  as  heavy  as  lead,"  she  was 
alone  and  was  afraid  that  something  might  happen,  but 
she  was  unable  to  make  any  headway.  The  sensation 
of  inhibition  experienced  in  dreams,  like  the  inability  to 
make  any  headway  when  one  most  desires  to  do  so,  sig- 
nifies a  marked  mental  conflict.  Here,  too,  it  merely 
shows  the  great  mental  conflict  in  our  dreamer's  mind. 
She  is  anxious  to  marry.  She  "likes"  Mr.  F.  Moreover, 
she  is  of  an  advanced  age  and,  as  the  dream  shows,  she 
could  walk  only  very  slowly  as  if  "she  were  weak  or  very 
old,"  that  is,  the  difficulties  on  the  road  to  matrimony 
increase  with  advancing  age.  She  is  weak  and  old,  that  is, 
she  is  an  "old  maid,"  an  expression  by  which  she  often 
jocosely  referred  to  herself  in  her  waking  state.     All  of 


DREAMS  99 

these  arguments  are  in  favor  of  accepting  Mr.  F.,  but 
then  her  family  is  opposed  to  him.  He  is  a  nice  enough 
young  man,  but  he  is  unable  to  care  for  her  in  a  manner 
befitting  her  station  in  life. 

The  dream  continues:  "Every  time  I  made  a  move  there 
was  a  wall  in  the  way,  it  looked  like  a  street  full  of  walls, 
etc."  A  street  full  of  walls  signifies  Wall  street,  hence 
money — that  was  the  real  obstacle.  When  told  of  the 
interpretation  she  laughingly  remarked  ''That's  it  exactly. 
I  even  thought  very  seriously  of  helping  him  along,  as 
Pa  left  me  some  money,  but  then  everything  is  invested 
in  Wall  street  and  there  is  a  tacit  understanding  among 
ourselves  that  the  whole  estate  shall  be  left  intact  until 
mother's  death." 

We  now  understand  the  latent  thoughts  of  the  dream. 
The  first  part  can  be  translated  as  follows:  I  am  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  an  old  maid,  and  I  am  anxious  to  marry 
Mr.  F.,  but  then  he  is  not  rich  enough  to  take  care  of  me. 
I  perhaps  can  help  him  financially.  In  the  second  part 
we  find  the  wish  realization,  as  here  Mr.  F.  actually  pro- 
poses to  her  for  the  fourth  time. 

These  were  the  actual  thoughts  which  had  occupied 
our  dreamer's  mind  for  the  past  months  and  which,  as  she 
quite  frankly  admitted,  she  tried  hard  to  forget.  It  is 
quite  obvious  that  the  dream  deals  here  with  the  thoughts 
which  a  young  lady  would  not  consciously  disclose  even 
to  her  physician,  and  we  can  also  understand  why  she  was 
"ashamed  to  tell  it"  because  she  understood  it  uncon- 
sciously, though  not  consciously.  The  dream  never 
deals  with  trivialities,  and,  no  matter  how  simple  and 
innocent  it  may  seem,  the  analysis  invariably  shows  that 


100  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  thoughts  behind  it  belong  to  the  inmost  recesses  of 
personality.  This  accounts  for  the  many  resistances 
encountered  during  the  analysis.  The  psychic  censor 
constantly  inhibits  the  painful  or  disagreeable  complexes 
from  becoming  conscious  and  is  also  responsible  for  the 
rapid  forgetting  of  dreams  on  awakening.* 

Dreams  often  help  us  to  make  a  correct  diagnosis. 
This  is  especially  true  in  the  anxiety  states  and  homo- 
sexuality. People  who  are  subject  to  nightmares  or 
who  have  anxiety  dreams  usually  suffer  from  lack  of  sexual 
gratification.  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  gross  sexual, 
but  I  use  the  word  in  the  Freudian  sense.  We  must 
be  very  careful  in  our  examination,  otherwise  we  may 
make  mistakes.  Thus  a  married  woman  suffered  from  a 
pronounced  anxiety  hysteria  and  was  subject  to  frequent 
nightmares,  but  on  being  questioned  she  stated  that  her 
sexual  life  was  normal.  A  few  weeks  later  I  discovered 
that  she  was  suffering  from  frigidity  and  although  she  was 
married  six  years  she  never  experienced  an  orgasm  or  any 
pleasure  in  coitus. 

I  have  made  many  diagnoses  of  homosexuality  from 
the  patient's  dreams.  Many  homosexuals  go  to  doctors, 
but  do  not  tell  them  the  true  state  of  affairs.  They  are 
usually  sensitive  and  not  knowing  how  the  physician  will 
look  upon  them  they  complain  of  something  else.  Thus, 
a  homosexual  whom  I  saw  in  the  Vanderbilt  clinic  com- 

*Not  infrequently  patients  "stop  dreaming  "  altogether.  On  telling 
one  of  my  patients  that  the  sudden  forgetting  of  all  his  dreams  was 
due  to  an  unconscious  resistance,  he  remarked:  "I'll  get  you  some 
dreams  tomorrow  if  I  have  to  stay  awake  the  whole  night."  His 
words  only  confirmed  my  diagnosis,  for  no  one  can  stay  awake  the 
whole  night  and  dream  at  the  same  time. 


DREAMS  101 

plained  of  pain  in  the  thigh.  His  dream  told  me  the  true 
story.  The  patient  unconsciously  displaced  his  trouble 
to  his  thigh  because  he  did  not  dare  tell  his  real  malady. 
It  also  happens  that  the  patients  do  not  know  that  they  are 
homosexual.  This  is  usually  the  case  with  women,  but  I 
have  seen  at  least  two  men  who  were  ignorant  of  their  being 
homosexual.  Their  dreams  first  called  my  attention  to  the 
fact.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  one  is  not  to 
judge  by  the  manifest  content  of  the  dream  as  does  Nacke,*^ 
for  a  dream  may  not  show  anything  of  the  gross  homo- 
sexual in  its  manifest  content  and  still  be  a  homosexual 
dream.  This  is  shown  by  the  following  dream  brought  to 
me  by  a  man  of  thirty-five  years:  "7  saw  two  men.  One 
looked  at  an  open  newspaper  and  the  other  watched  him 
sidewise,  reading  his  thoughts  like  a  detective.  Suddenly 
the  latter  stabbed  the  man  with  the  newspaper  by  plunging  a 
dagger  into  his  heart.    Great  commotion — crowd." 

After  reading  the  dream  as  it  was  written  by  the  patient 
immediately  on  awakening  three  hours  before,  I  asked 
him  to  tell  me  the  dream  from  memory.  He  reproduced 
the  dream  correctly,  but  made  one  mistake;  instead  of 
saying  that  the  dagger  was  plunged  into  the  heart  he 
said  that  it  was  plunged  into  the  back.  My  object  in 
asking  him  to  reproduce  the  dream  was  this:  From  the 
association  experiments  of  the  Zurich  school^^  we  know 
that  a  failure  of  reproduction  is  a  complex  indicator;  that 
is,  whenever  the  answer  is  forgotten  it  shows  that  the 
word  or  passage  in  question  is  of  marked  emotional  accen- 
tuation and  contains  something  cryptic.  It  has  the  same 
mechanism  as  the  lapsus  linguae  or  any  other  mistake. 
Now  let  us  take  up  the  analysis:  A  crowd  in  the  dream 


102  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

signifies  a  secret.  The  two  men  were  readily  identified  as 
the  dreamer  himself  and  a  young  man  with  whom  he  spent 
the  evening  of  the  night  of  the  dream.  The  dreamer  was 
treated  for  homosexuality — passive  pederasty — and  the 
murderer  of  the  dream  is  a  young  man  with  whom  he  is 
secretly  in  love.  Those  of  my  readers  who  may  be  ac- 
quainted with  dream  analysis  know  that  the  dagger  is  a 
symbol  for  the  penis.  Women  suffering  from  lack  of 
sexual  gratification  often  dream  of  being  attacked  with 
knives,  daggers,  etc.  Here  the  dream  shows  the  realiza- 
tion of  "a  wish  to  act  as  a  passive  pederast  for  the  young 
man  he  loves.  The  stabbing  taking  place  in  the  heart 
shows  the  familiar  mechanism  of  displacement  from  below 
to  above.  The  lower  part  of  the  body  being  tabooed, 
the  action  is  transferred  to  the  upper  part;  but  the  mis- 
take very  nicely  pointed  to  the  patient's  true  wish;  the 
dagger  was  plunged  into  the  back.^^ 

Other  examples  showing  how  dreams  solve  the  problems 
of  the  neuroses  are  the  following: 

An  unmarried  woman,  Z.,  of  thirty  years,  was  treated  by  me  for 
hysteria.  One  of  the  distressing  symptoms  was  morning  nausea 
with  occasional  vomiting  from  which  she  was  suffering  from  periods 
of  two  and  three  months  for  the  last  five  years.  She  stated  that  she 
was  treated  for  it  during  all  these  years,  but  without  success.  I  soon 
concluded  that  the  symptom  was  hysterical  and  paid  no  particular 
attention  to  it  as  it  was  only  one  out  of  many  others.  One  day  she 
told  me  the  following  dream : 

1.  "/  dreamed  that  Mgt.  and  I  were  'pregnant  and  in  some  way  or 
other  I  thought  that  birds  were  connected  with  this  pregnancy. 

2.  "Then  I  dreamed  of  looking  down  on  my  own  or  some  one's  else 
bare  toes.  Each  toe  became  the  head  of  a  man  as  I  looked  and  they  all 
seemed  to  be  smiling  or  laughing.  One  of  the  heads  looked  like  S.  V.,  a 
male  acquaintance." 


DREAMS  103 

A  few  facts  before  proceeding  with  the  analysis,  z.  was  bi-sexual 
and  since  the  age  of  sixteen  years  had  many  homosexual  amours. 
Mgt.  was  her  friend  with  whom  she  had  been  in  love  for  years.  Mgt. 
was  aware  of  it  and  as  she  is  not  homosexual  they  were  forced  to 
remain  apart.  They  saw  each  other  now  and  then  and  were  very 
friendly.  Z.  came  to  me  in  1910  and  at  that  time  she  suffered  from 
fits  of  depression  following  periodic  debauches  of  masturbation. 
Mgt.  was  the  object  of  her  masturbatic  fancies. 

When  I  asked  her  to  focus  her  attention  on  the  idea  of 
pregnancy  and  repeat  her  associations  she  stated  that 
there  was  a  time  were  she  was  in  mortal  dread  of  being  preg- 
nant. At  the  age  of  nine  years  she  was  seduced  by  a  farm 
hand  and  had  sexual  relations  with  him.  When  she  was  ten 
years  old  she  heard  that  girls  became  pregnant  as  a  result 
of  such  relations  and  she  was  terrified  at  the  thought  of  it 
because  she  imagined  that  she  was  pregnant  and  that  her 
parents  would  discover  her  relations  with  this  man.  Her 
first  sexual  instructions  were  received  at  a  very  early  age. 
An  older  child  called  her  attention  to  the  sexual  acts  of  the 
poultrj^  which  she  watched  with  great  interest.  She 
imagined  that  women  laid  eggs  like  chickens.  The  day  of 
the  dream  she  yearned  for  a  child.  She  spoke  with  Mgt. 
about  the  voidness  in  their  lives  and  both  agreed  that  they 
would  be  contented  if  they  each  had  a  child.  She  herself 
had  had  this  wish  for  years  as  she  is  very  fond  of  children. 
Birds  to  her  mean  chickens.  She  was  brought  up  on  a 
farm  and  the  poultry  was  always  referred  to  as  birds. 
The  fir^t  part  of  the  dream,  therefore,  realized  the  wish 
that  she  and  Mgt.  were  pregnant  and  the  second  part  of  the 
dream,  as  will  be  seen,  shows  who  was  responsible  for  it. 
When  asked  to  associate  to  the  word  "toes"  she  thought 
of  a  foot  as  this  brought  to  her  mind  that  when  she  carried 


104  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

on  her  affair  with  the  farm-hand  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
touching  her  with  his  bare  feet  in  forbidden  places  while  the 
family  was  sitting  around  the  table.  The  toe  is  also  a 
symbol  for  the  penis.  The  toes  resolved  themselves 
into  the  heads  of  laughing  men  and  one  looked  like  S.  V. 
She  dislikes  the  latter  because  he  has  a  "dirty  mind."  He 
has  the  reputation  of  being  a  libertine.  He  is,  therefore,  the 
right  man  in  the  right  place  and,  though  she  consciously 
rejects  him,  he  is  accepted  by  her  unconsciously.  There  are 
many  more  subtler  determinants  for  this  dream  which  I  am 
forced  to  omit  here. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four  she  discovered  for  the  first 
time  that  pregnancy  was  accompanied  by  morning  nausea 
and  vomiting.  Some  time  after  she  began  to  suffer  from 
the  nausea  and  vomiting.  The  symptom  was  therefore 
the  expression  of  a  wish  realization  and  I  could  definitely 
show  that  it  came  on  when  the  wish  was  especially  strong. 
With  the  analysis  the  symptoms  disappeared. 

A  young  married  Englishman  suffering  from  a  compulsion  neurosis 
was  obsessed  by  the  thought  of  socialism.  The  obsession  came  on 
during  the  notorious  McNamara  trial  and  persisted  with  increasing 
vigor  until  he  came  to  see  me  a  few  months  ago.  No  matter  in  what 
surrounding  he  was,  whether  at  his  desk  or  in  the  theater,  he  would 
have  to  discuss  with  himself  socialism.  He  would  wake  up  mornings 
with  the  question  "Is  sociaUsm  a  correct  theory,  is  sociahsm  a  true 
theory  of  economics?"  and  he  would  then  argue  for  and  against  it.  He 
would  read  boolcs  and  pamphlets  on  the  subject,  but  could  never  come 
to  any  decision.  While  tallying  with  friends  the  idea  would  obtrude 
itself:  "It  will  be  terrible  when  the  government  will  control  every- 
thing and  some  new  conditions  will  come  into  being  which  will 
influence  me  materially.  I  wonder  whether  the  president  is  convinced 
of  the  truth  of  the  socialistic  doctrines,  etc."  While  attending  a  play 
he  would  be  bothered  by  the  idea  that  it  was  wrong  for  him  to  spend 
money  on  luxuries  when  there  were  other  persons  starving.     Indeed 


DREAMS  105 

the  patient  stated  that  there  was  not  half  an  hour  when  he  was  free 
from  thoughts  on  socialism.  With  the  characteristic  arguments  of 
folie  raisonant  he  went  through  the  most  absurd  and  abstruse  argu- 
mentations. Lest  there  should  be  some  misunderstanding  I  will 
state  that  ordinarily  the  patient  had  no  interest  at  all  in  socialism; 
he  professed  Catholicism  and  was  quite  conservative  in  his  ideas. 
He  reaUzed  the  absurdity  of  his  compulsive  thinking,  but  was  power- 
less to  control  it. 

After  coming  to  me  for  a  few  weeks  he  brought  the  following  dream: 
"Bernard  Shaw,  the  writer,  was  the  guest  at  some  affair  and  I  was  there, 
too.  There  was  another  man  there  who,  when  he  removed  his  peculiar 
wig,  I  noticed  was  the  humorous  writer  0." 

The  determinants  of  the  dream  were  as  follows:  A  few 
days  before  he  had  read  that  the  Governor  General  of 
Jamaica  is  a  socialist  and  that  he  once  shocked  the  English 
aristocracy  by  inviting  Bernard  Shaw  to  one  of  his  social 
gatherings.  The  day  before  the  dream  he  had  read  a  refer- 
ence to  Brieux's  play  "Damaged  Goods,"  a  play  dealing 
with  sex  to  which  Bernard  Shaw  wrote  a  preface.  On  con- 
tinuing the  association  he  recalled  the  story  of  "Man  and 
Superman,"  Shaw's  play;  how  everyone  was  shocked  be- 
cause a  girl  was  supposed  to  have  been  pregnant  and  how 
the  hero.  Tanner,  defended  her  saying  that  she  was  going 
to  perform  the  noblest  function  of  womanhood.  He,  too, 
is  liberal  on  the  question  of  sex.  The  lady's  name  was 
Violet.     His  wife's  name  is  Viola. 

According  to  the  rules  of  association  there  must  have 
been  a  close  relationship  between  the  sexual  lives  of  Shaw's 
heroine  and  his  wife  and  further  investigation  actually 
showed  that  this  was  so.  In  brief  he  admitted  that  for 
some  time  before  marriage  they  led  a  sexual  life  and  that 
on  a  few  occasions  she  had  reason  to  fear  pregnancy. 
The  subject  of  pregnancy  came  up  again  the  night  before 


106  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  dream  because  he  imagined  that  his  wife  was  getting 
stout.  He  stated  that  he  did  not  have  the  shghtest 
apprehension  about  it  as  the  proper  precautions  were 
taken;  that  everything  was  well  when  he  left  home  a  few 
weeks  ago  (he  returned  the  day  before  the  dream).  He 
refused  to  proceed  with  the  associations,  but  upon  being 
urged  he  reproduced  a  rather  intimate  scene  between 
himself  and  his  wife.  For  some  reason  he  was  depressed 
and  kept  on  asking  his  wife  "Aren't  you  all  mine,  aren't 
you  all  mine?"  and  despite  all  her  assurance  he  asked  the 
question  over  and  over  again.  I  told  him  that  judging 
from  this  scene  one  would  think  that  he  was  not  sure  of 
his  wife's  fidelity.  He  readily  admitted  that  while  it 
did  not  enter  his  mind  during  this  scene,  he  has  entertained 
ideas  of  jealousy  since  he  first  became  acquainted  with 
his  wife.  To  my  question  he  answered  that  he  is  not 
jealous  of  any  particular  man,  that  the  idea  is  vague  and 
that  he  suppresses  it  as  soon  as  it  crosses  his  mind.  He 
then  recalled  that  before  he  met  his  wife  he  was  inter- 
ested in  another  girl  to  whom  his  parents  objected.  His 
mother  said  that  "she  was  a  rag  on  every  bush,"  meaning 
that  she  was  owned  by  a  great  many  men.  This  recalled 
to  him  that  while  he  was  separated  from  his  wife  he  met  a 
great  many  women  who  were  "a  rag  on  every  bush."  He 
did  not  yield  to  temptation,  but  entertained  a  great  many 
forbidden  fancies. 

The  associations  making  up  the  elements  of  the  dream 
thus  far  reproduced  brought  to  light  a  complex  of  marked 
emotional  feeling,  the  content  of  which  was  jealousy.  He 
suspected  his  wife  of  infidelity,  but  be  had  no  particular 
person  in  mind.     It  was  simply  a  general  jealousy. 


DREAMS  107 

When  asked  about  Mr.  O.  in  the  dream  he  stated  that 
he  did  not  know  it  was  Mr.  0  until  he  removed  his  wig. 
He  is  not  acquainted  personally  with  O.,  but  knows  him 
by  sight.  He  heard  that  although  O.  is  married  he  does 
not  disdain  light  flirtations  when  he  is  away  from  his 
wife.  He  excuses  O.'s  actions  b}^  saying  that  he  belongs 
to  a  rather  passionate  type  of  man.  His  description  of 
O.  corresponds  to  himself  and  when  I  called  his  attention 
to  it  he  at  once  corroborated  it  by  saying  that  he  was 
aware  of  the  remarkable  resemblance  between  them  and 
that  strangers  have  noticed  it.  When  I  asked  him  about 
the  wig  he  stated  that  O.  recently  wrote  a  pseudoscientific 
paper  on  hair  culture.  For  many  delicate  reasons  which 
cannot  be  explained  he  himself  had  of  late  something  to 
do  with  hair. 

These  associations,  as  well  as  others  that  need  not  be 
mentioned,  not  only  explain  the  dream  fragment  but  also 
the  obsession.  The  dream  deals  with  the  most  intimate 
factors  of  the  dreamer's  Ufe.  In  brief  he  is  not  sure  of 
his  wife,  and  although  he  is  an  admirer  of  Shaw  he  is  not 
quite  willing  to  accept  his  views  on  sex.  He  does  not 
beheve  in  freedom  of  sex,  he  wants  his  wife  to  have  no 
other  man  beside  himself.  While  he  was  separated  from 
her  he  was  restrained  in  his  temptation  by  the  thought 
that  he  had  no  right  to  practise  what  he  would  abhor  in 
his  wife.  He  does  not  believe  in  collective  ownership 
when  it  concerns  his  own  wife.  In  the  dream,  however, 
he  identifies  himself  with  O.,  who,  according  to  his  belief, 
is  quite  free  in  his  marital  views.  In  other  words,  what's 
right  for  the  goose  is  not  necessarily  so  for  the  gander. 
This  conflict  which  has  existed  since  his  betrothal,  and 


108  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

is  very  painful  to  him,  therefore  appears  under  the  obses- 
sion of  socialism  which,  to  our  patient,  is  "  collective  owner- 
ship, common  possession."  The  truth  of  this  assumption 
was  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  obsession  disappeared 
as  soon  as  its  true  meaning  became  known  to  the  patient. 

I  saw  Miss  A.  for  the  first  time  in  August,  1911,  when  she  was  re- 
ferred to  me  by  Dr.  Morton  Prince,  of  Boston.  At  that  time  she 
suffered  from  fits  of  depression  and  despondency,  which  were  the 
results  of  sexual  conflicts.  She  was  bisexually  predisposed,  more 
homo-  than  hetero-sexual,  and  before  coming  to  us  had  gone  through  a 
number  of  unhappy  homosexual  affairs.  Due  to  her  unrequited 
libido  she  masturbated  rather  excessively,  and  suffered  from  the  usual 
conflicts  of  the  chronic  masturbator.  The  conditions  were  not 
favorable  for  a  regular  course  of  psychoanalytic  treatment,  so  I  saw 
her  only  a  few  times  a  month,  and  after  a  few  months  she  left  me  very 
much  improved.  She  returned  about  six  months  later,  and  since  then 
I  have  seen  her  periodically  two  or  three  times  a  month.  I  shall  not 
enter  into  the  various  mechanisms  at  play,  as  I  have  no  intention  of 
describing  the  case  as  such.  I  will  simply  state  that  besides  the 
symptoms  mentioned  she  showed  many  others  of  a  hysterical  char- 
acter, and  I  will  here  describe  the  analysis  of  one  of  the  symptoms. 

When  she  came  to  me  last  fall  she  told  me  she  was  getting  along  very 
well,  except  for  the  following  complaint:  she  imagined  that  she  had 
cancer  in  the  right  breast.  She  had  no  definite  pain,  but  felt  a  pecuUar 
annoying  feeling.  There  was  no  growth  or  mark  of  any  kind  to  justify 
the  sUghtest  suspicion,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases.  She  herself  reaUzed 
that  she  had  no  cancer,  still  she  could  not  shake  off  her  obsessive 
fear.  I  tried  to  get  some  Hght  on  the  subject,  but  I  could  discover 
nothing  important.  A  few  weeks  later  she  brought  me  the  following 
dream : 

"  /  dreamed  that  I  was  inspecting  a  cellar  belonging  to  an  Italian  woman. 
The  cellar  was,  or  we  were,  exposed  to  the  view  of  a  man.  It  seemed  that 
I  knew  that  in  the  cellar  there  ivas  gold  or  some  other  valuable  thing.  I  saw 
this  man  watching  me.  I  went  down  and  he  followed  me.  He  was  tall, 
young,  rather  well  dressed,  but  brutal  looking.  I  was  sure  that  he  intended 
to  do  me  some  harm  in  order  to  get  the  gold  or  valuables,  and  I  managed 
to  call,  'Police!  Police!  Police!'     I  was  surprised  that  I  could  call  out 


DREAMS  109 

at  all  as  I  was  very  badly  frightened.  Then  I  called,  'Help!  Help!  Help!' 
hut  my  voice  could  not  carry  very  far.  Then  the  man  quickly  plunged  a 
stiletto  into  my  right  breast,  just  below  the  fleshy  part.  I  felt  a  sickening 
sensation  and  began  to  swoon.  I  then  reached  my  hand  up  and  began  to 
pull  out  the  dagger.  I  could  hear  the  queer  noise  it  made  separating  from 
the  bones  and  flesh,  and  felt  a  wet  feeling  around  it.  I  pulled  it  only  a 
little  way  when  I  woke  up." 

As  soon  as  she  began  to  focus  her  attention  on  the  dream  she  dimly- 
recalled  that  she  had  a  similar  dream  before  she  perceived  the  feeUng 
in  the  chest,  which  was  later  formed  into  the  cancer  obsession.  This 
led  me  to  think  that  we  dealt  here  with  a  resolution  dream,  that  the 
dreamer  resolved  to  do  a  certain  thing,  and  the  dream  continued  to 
represent  it  as  realized  because  it  was  not  accomplished.  Now  let  us 
see  what  the  dream  represents  as  fulfilled.  The  associations  to  cellar 
were  the  lower  part  of  the  house,  filthy  cellars  in  tenements,  a  dark, 
mj'sterious  opening,  the  female  genitals.  This  was  also  corroborated 
by  the  fact  that  she  was  aware  in  the  dream  that  the  cellar  contained 
some  gold  or  other  valuable  thing.  The  description  of  the  man 
corresponds  to  the  type  of  man  that  plays  a  part  in  her  fancies. 
She  is  very  masochistic  and  of  the  very  petite  type,  and  a  "tall,  young, 
rather  well-dressed,  but  brutal  looking  man,"  would  just  suit  her. 
This  is  shown  in  the  dream  by  the  fact  that  she  was  sure  that  he  in- 
tended to  do  her  some  harm  in  order  to  get  the  gold  or  valuables.  The 
stiletto  and  the  stabbing  in  the  breast  are  symboUc  of  coitus,  and  show 
the  mechanism  of  displacement  from  below  to  above.  This  is 
further  determined  by  the  fact  that  at  the  age  of  nine  years  the 
dreamer  had  sexual  relations  with  a  man  of  the  type  described  in  the 
dream.  The  dream  is,  therefore,  a  symbolic  expression  of  coitus, 
which  played  a  very  great  part  in  the  dreamer's  mind  at  that  time. 
The  feeling  in  the  breast,  or  the  phobia,  was  the  remnant  of  the  dream, 
which,  through  conversion,  became  a  hysterical  symptom  and 
symbolized  pregnancy,  which  was  her  strongest  wish.  This  case 
shows  the  influence  of  dreams  on  waking  life,  as  described  by 
Jones,  ^*  and  dreams  as  determinants  of  the  form  of  sjonptoms  as 
described  by  Waterman^^  and  others.  The  symptom  disappeared 
with  the  analysis. 

It  is  not  only  in  diagnosing  gross  neurotic  symptoms 
that  the  dream  is  of  service,  but  it  also  helps  us  to  diagnose 


110  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

and  cure  so-called  peculiar  traits  of  character.     To  illustrate 
this  I  will  cite  the  following  case : 

A  young  married  woman  of  twenty-six  years  consulted  me  and 
decided  to  come  to  me  for  regular  psychoanalytic  treatment.  When 
she  was  about  to  leave  she  wished  to  pay  me  for  the  consultation.  I 
told  her  that  it  was  my  custom  to  send  monthly  statements  to  my 
patients  and  that  she  might  wait  until  the  end  of  the  month  before 
pajdng  me.  She  thanked  me  for  my  offer,  but  emphatically  declared 
that  she  would  pay  at  the  end  of  each  consultation,  adding  that  she 
always  pays  cash,  be  it  to  the  doctor,  druggist,  grocer,  milliner  or 
dressmaker.  Knowing  that  she  was  a  woman  of  means  I  naturally 
thought  it  strange  and  I  remarked  something  to  that  effect.  She 
then  told  me  that  all  her  friends  and  acquaintances,  including  her 
husband,  think  that  she  is  peculiar  in  this  respect,  but  that  does  not 
alter  her  desire  not  to  "run  up  any  bills"  and  to  pay  cash  for  every- 
thing. She  came  to  me  daily  except  Sunday  and  always  paid  before 
leaving.  After  coming  to  me  for  a  \yeek  or  two  she  once  forgot  to  pay, 
but  within  a  few  minutes  she  returned  excitedly  and  although  I  was 
busy  with  the  next  patient  she  insisted  upon  seeing  me.  She  was  very 
profuse  in  her  apologies  despite  my  assuring  her  that  there  was  no 
need  for  her  returning,  let  alone  for  apologizing.  The  following  week 
the  same  thing  happened  again  with  the  same  results.  A  week  later 
she  actually  forgot  to  pay  and  did  not  recall  it  until  she  returned 
home.  She  telephoned,  however,  and  insisted  upon  sending  my  fee 
to  me  by  special  dehvery. 

Considering  the  financial  experiences  we  physicians  sometimes  have 
with  patients  I  should  have  had  no  cause  for  complaint  and  that  was 
exactly  what  one  of  my  colleagues  who  is  interested  in  psychoanalysis 
thought.  But  when  I  asked  him  the  meaning  of  the  patient's 
extreme  scrupulosity  he  stated  that  judging  by  the  fact  that  she  had 
forgotten  to  pay  on  a  number  of  occasions  it  would  seem  that  she  was 
not  quite  pleased  with  the  treatment  and  hence  did  not  like  to  pay  for 
it.  His  reasoning  was  in  accordance  with  psychoanalytic  experience 
as  we  are  taught  that  there  is  no  accidental  forgetting  and  that  there 
is  always  a  purpose  in  forgetting.  We  usually  forget  what  we  do  not 
wish  to  remember.  But  I  pointed  out  to  him  that  both  she  herself 
and  her  friends  assert  that  this  feeling — "the  terrible  honesty,"  as 
one  friend  called  it — has  existed  since  girlhood  so  that  it  could  not 


K 


DREAMS  111 

have  any  special  bearing  on  her  feeling  toward  the  treatment.  More- 
over, I  was  very  sure  that  she  was  satisfied  with  the  progress  she  was 
making  in  the  treatment.  A  few  weeks  later  she  brought  the  following 
dream :  "  /  was  invited  to  tea  at  the  house  of  J.,  but  I  did  not  go.  Instead 
I  went  with  a  large  party  of  school  girls  on  some  sort  of  picnic.  When  it 
came  to  be  7  o'clock  I  was  sorry  that  J.  had  been  waiting  for  me  all 
the  afternoon  and  knew  that  I  ought  to  telephone  her.  I  went  out  to 
telephone  and  found  that  I  had  no  money.  I  saw  a  gold  piece  lying 
before  me.  I  knew  to  whom  it  belonged,  in  fact  people  were  looking  for 
it,  but  as  I  needed  money  to  telephone  I  did  not  give  it  up.  I  knew  I 
was  a  thief  and  I  was  sorry,  but  I  kept  the  money  just  the  same.  Then 
I  began  to  borrow  everything — money,  gloves,  etc. — and  people  all  seemed 
to  be  afraid  I  would  not  return  the  things  I  borrowed." 

For  many  reasons  I  am  only  giving  a  fragment  of  a  long 
dream,  but  it  will  suffice  to  demonstrate  what  I  wish  to 
point  out.  The  dream  was  determined  by  the  following 
experiences  of  the  day  before:  She  was  invited  to  a  tea 
and  did  not  like  to  go.  She  received  a  letter  from  a  school- 
mate inviting  her  to  visit  her.  She  had  some  conversation 
about  money  matters  with  her  husband.  There  were 
many  associations  which  I  shall  omit  as  not  absolutely 
necessary  and  will  confine  myself  to  those  directly  bearing 
on  the  complex.  When  I  asked  her  to  focus  her  attention 
on  the  gold  piece  she  suddenly  became  very  emotional. 
She  begged  me  not  to  press  her  to  tell  me  this  particular 
thought  as  it  was  very  painful,  etc.,  etc.  After  much 
argument  and  protest  she  gave  the  following  associations: 
Her  mother  was  not  faithful  to  her  father,  and  as  he  was 
frequently  away  on  business  she  entertained  many  intrigues. 
It  was  when  my  patient  was  a  little  girl  of  about  seven  or 
eight  years  that  she  came  into  the  room  unobserved  by  her 
mother  and  saw  the  latter  going  through  the  pockets  of  one 
of  her  paramours  who  was  too  intoxicated  to  protest.     She 


112  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

left  as  she  entered,  but  she  never  forgave  her  mother  for  it. 
She  said  nothing,  but  for  a  long  time  she  felt  a  strong 
resentment  and  aversion  toward  her  mother.  Never- 
theless, shortly  after  while  at  school  she  imitated  her  mother 
by  stealing  a  few  pennies  from  a  classmate's  pocket.  She 
was  never  discovered  and  she  never  stole  anything  else  and 
soon  thereafter,  at  the  age  of  ten  or  eleven  years,  became 
a  model  of  honesty. 

This  dream  may  be  called  a  contrast  dream  as  it  shows 
the  reverse  side  of  the  person  and  explains  that  our  dream- 
er's "terrible  honesty"  is  simply  a  reaction  to  her  un- 
conscious dishonesty.  This  patient  identified  herself  with 
her  mother  in  almost  every  respect.  She  led  the  same 
life  as  her  mother  and  treated  her  husband  just  as  her 
mother  treated  her  father.  The  picture  would  have  been 
the  same  had  she  continued  to  show  a  tendency  to  dis- 
honesty, but  as  this  was  repressed,  the  reaction  had  to 
be  a  scrupulous  honesty.  Like  the  character  in  Ibsen's 
"Pillars  of  Society"  she  had  "to  hold  up  the  banner  of  the 
ideal."  That  accounts  for  the  fact  that  she  often  forgot 
to  pay,  as  she  actually  desired.  For  some  time  before  the 
analysis  of  this  dream  she  would  pay  in  advance  to  make 
sure  that  she  would  not  forget.  The  conversation  with 
her  husband  was  about  her  allowance.  She  asked  for 
more  and  he  granted  her  request.  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  she  was  at  the  time  in  love  with  another  man  her 
conscience  pricked  her  and  she  said  to  herself:  "I  am 
nothing  but  a  thief  and  I  have  no  right  to  his  money." 
This  was  the  main  determinant  of  the  dream.  After  every- 
thing was  analy2!;ed  and  her  unconscious  complex  was  laid 
bare  to  her  she  was  quite  willing  to  "run  up  "  a  bill  with  me. 


DREAMS  113 

Having  referred  so  often  to  symbols  in  dreams  it  will  not 
be  amiss  to  say  a  few  words  about  symbolism  in  general. 
Madeline  Pelletier  defines  a  symbol  as  "a  false  perception 
of  a  marked  relation  of  identity  or  analogy  between  two 
objects  which,  in  reahty,  present  only  a  vague  analogy." 
This  definition  is  confirmed  by  the  study  of  philology. 
Primitive  writing  consisted  of  a  collection  of  symbols;  the 
Egyptians,  for  example,  used  figures  to  represent  ideas 
and  the  original  alphabet  consisted  of  a  collection  of  sym- 
bols. Thus  the  original  letter  B  did  not  stand  for  the 
consonant,  but  it  was  a  picture  of  a  crude  outline  of  a 
house  and  meant  to  represent  the  idea  "house."  With  the 
advance  of  civilization  the  alphabetic  sj^mbols  lost  their 
original  meaning  and  became  consonants  and  vowels. 
Symbols,  therefore,  represent  a  lower  form  of  thinking  for 
they  identify  objects  which  have  only  a  very  remote 
analogy.  Children  and  primitive  races  still  make  use  of 
this  form  of  expression.  Thus  a  child  calls  a  stick  a  horse 
simply  because  it  can  ride  on  it.  The  analogy  between 
the  stick  and  the  horse  is  very  remote  indeed.  As  the 
child  grows  older  and  becomes  able  to  discriminate  and 
compare  it  no  longer  forms  such  vague  analogies.  The 
symbols  that  we  use  in  our  daily  life  though  more  complex 
and  specialized  are  symbols  none  the  less.  The  Statue 
of  Liberty,  the  cross,  the  masonic  emblems,  the  barber's 
pole,  are  examples  of  this  nature.  Language  is  full  of 
symbols.  A  symbol  is  a  form  of  short-hand  writing.  One 
word  may  express  an  idea  or  have  many  meanings,  e.g., 
the  word  "green"  may  represent  a  color  or  stand  for  the 
idea  hope.  Rehgion  swarms  with  symbolisms  and  the 
more  primitive  the  form  the  more  prolific  the  symbolism. 


114  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

It  has  also  been  found  that  diminished  attention  favors  a 
lower  form  of  thinking  and  that  a  disturbance  of  attention 
causes  shallow  reaction  types.  This  accounts  for  sym- 
bohzation  in  hallucinations,  delusions,  dreams,  wit  and 
poetry;*  that  is,  one  is  apt  to  find  symbols  in  all  those  pro- 
ductions that  come  from  unconscious  mentation.  When  we 
have  our  f|ill  attention  and  can  compare  and  discriminate 
we  are  not  likely  to  form  any  remote  analogies.  On  the 
other  hand,  whenever  these  factors  are  disturbed  or  absent, 
as  in  dreams  and  psychoses,  and  under  certain  conditions 
even  in  the  waking  state,  we  make  use  of  symbols.  In 
this  connection  the  following  experience  related  by  an 
acquaintance  will  be  of  interest:  While  walking  with  two 
friends  their  attention  was  attracted  by  a  big  bird  in  the 
distant  height.  One  of  them  suggested  that  it  was  a  crow 
and  remarked  that  it  was  rather  unusual  to  see  this  bird 
in  the  city.  As  it  came  nearer  they  were  sure  that  it  was 
a  stray  or  escaped  eagle,  and  finally  it  turned  out  to  be  a 
flying  machine.  The  reason  for  these  mistakes  at  first  was 
the  inability  to  judge  and  discriminate,  and  had  they  left 
before  the  machine  came  near  enough  to  afford  the  oppor- 
tunity for  proper  comparison  and  judgment  they  would 
have  been  convinced  that  they  saw  a  crow  or  an  eagle. 
During  my  service  in  the  Clinic  of  Psychiatry  at  Zurich 
I  was  often  present  while  my  former  chief  Prof.  Bleuler 
examined  the  patients.  One  of  the  tests,  principally  for 
attention,  was  to  expose  pictures  very  rapidly  and  ask  the 
patient  to  tell  what  he  saw.     The  pictures  used  were  from 

*  An  excellent  paper  on  Poetry  and  Dreams  was  published  by  Pro- 
fessor F.  C.  Prescott  in  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  Vol. 
VII,  1  and  2. 


DREAMS  115 

a  booklet  containing  over  two  hundred  pictures,  both 
simple  and  complex,  of  everything  imaginable.  Among 
the  pictures  of  the  vegetables  was  the  asparagus,  and  when- 
ever this  was  rapidly  exposed  the  patients  almost  always 
believed  that  it  was  the  penis.  I  have  repeated  this  same 
test  hundreds  of  times  with  the  same  result.  The  patients 
are  shown  more  than  ninety  pictures  before  they  get  to 
the  picture  of  the  asparagus  and  whether  the  answers 
are  correct  or  not  they  are  usually  given  promptl3^  When 
the  asparagus  is  shown  they  invariably  hesitate;  some 
give  no  answer  at  all;  their  expression,  however,  plainly 
betrays  their  thoughts.  Others  claim  that  they  have 
not  seen  distinctly  enough,  and  some  of  the  bolder  ones 
simply  laugh.  It  is  also  interesting  to  watch  their  fea- 
tures when  they  discover  the  real  picture.  Some  are  plainly 
disappointed,  others  are  very  relieved,  and,  lately,  one 
patient  exclaimed,  "I  didn't  know  I  was  so  evil-minded." 
They  all  admitted  that  they  first  thought  of  the  penis. 
Here  the  mistake  is  plainly  due  to  an  inability  to  discrimi- 
nate between  two  objects  having  a  vague  resemblance, 
and  is  caused  by  insufficient  attention  owing  to  the  rapid 
exposure.  It  is  such  vague  analogies  which,  when  found  in 
dreams  we  call  symbols,  which  have  given  cause  to  so  much 
controversy.  Those  who  find  it  so  strange  should  remember 
that  we  are  not  even  pioneers  in  the  use  of  symbolism,  but 
Hke  in  a  great  many  other  things  we  pay  attention  to  some- 
thing which  our  opponents  never  think  worth  examining. 
Anyone  making  a  real  effort  can  find  symbolisms  in  every 
psychosis;  to  be  sure  nothing  can  be  discovered  by  super- 
ficial questioning,  sometimes  resorted  to  by  our  biased 
critics.     Besides  the  necessary  knowledge,  experience  and 


116  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

skill,  it  requires  considerable  time.  Those  who  are  too  lazy 
to  investigate  naturally  find  it  easier  to  deny  and  sneer, 
yet  symbolisms  exist.  This  fact  often  finds  corroboration 
from  convincing  sources.  In  this  connection  the  following 
quotation  from  one  who  himself  went  through  the  expe- 
rience will  be  of  interest  ^^ : 

"  There  was,  however,  another  reason  for  my  frequent  re- 
fusal to  take  food,  in  my  belief  that  the  detectives  had 
resorted  to  a  more  subtle  method  of  detection.  They  now 
intended  by  each  article  of  food  to  suggest  a  certain  idea, 
and  I  was  expected  to  recognize  the  idea  thus  suggested. 
Conviction  or  acquittal  depended  upon  my  correct  inter- 
pretation of  their  symbols,  and  my  interpretation  was  to  be 
signified  by  my  eating  or  not  eating  the  several  kinds  of  food 
placed  before  me.  To  have  eaten  a  burnt  crust  of  bread 
would  have  been  a  confession  of  arson.  Why?  Simply 
because  the  charred  crust  suggested  fire;  and  as  bread  is  the 
staff  of  life,  would  it  not  be  an  inevitable  deduction  that  life 
had  been  destroyed — destroyed  by  fire — and  that  I  was  the 
destroyer?  On  one  day  to  eat  a  given  article  of  food  meant 
confession;  the  next  day,  or  the  next  meal,  a  refusal  to  eat 
it  meant  confession.  This  complication  of  logic  made  it 
doubly  difficult  for  me  to  keep  from  incriminating  myself 
and  others." 

Such  statements,  which  are  almost  always  found  in  the 
anamnesis  of  every  patient,  convince  one  of  the  truth  of 
symbolisms. 

That  so  many  symbolic  expressions  in  dreams  are  sexual 
is  not  at  all  surprising  when  we  consider  the  extent  of  sex 
repression  and  the  enormous  symbolization  of  sex  in  the 
waking  state.     Let  those  who  object  to  sexual  symbols  in 


DREAMS  117 

dreams  reflect  for  a  moment  and  they  will  soon  find  any 
number  of  sex  symbols  in  their  own  conscious  minds.  Be- 
cause sex  is  the  strongest  impulse  we  possess  it  has  been  sub- 
jected to  constant  suppression,  and  for  that  reason  one 
finds  it  both  symbolized  and  undisguised  in  the  unconcious 
and  in  literature.  When  the  poet  says,  "  And  Maidens,  be- 
coming bottles,  cry  aloud  for  corks"  (Pope — The  Rape  of 
the  Lock),  he  uses  gross  sexual  symbols  concerning  which 
there  can  be  no  mistake.  I  have  found  the  very  same  and 
similar  symbols  in  many  dreams.  In  the  unconscious  pro- 
ductions there  is  no  limit  to  sexual  symbolization.  Klein- 
paul  justly  remarked  "Man  sexualizes  the  universe."  An 
examination  of  our  colloquialisms,  stage  wit,  popular  songs, 
etc.,  will  convince  one  of  the  truth  of  this  statement.  In 
his  interesting  book,  "Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern  Christian 
Symbolism,"  Inman  says:^'^ 

"As  civilization  advanced,  the  gross  symbols  of  creative 
power  were  cast  aside,  and  priestly  ingenuity  was  taxed  to 
the  utmost  in  inventing  a  crowd  of  less  obvious  emblems, 
which  should  represent  the  ancient  ideas  in  a  decorous 
manner.  The  old  belief  was  retained,  but  in  a  mysterious 
or  subUmated  form.  As  symbols  of  the  male,  or  active 
element  in  creation,  the  sun,  light,  fire,  a  torch,  the  phallus 
or  linga,  an  erect  serpent,  a  tall  straight  tree,  especially  the 
palm  and  the  fir  or  pine,  were  adopted.  Equally  useful  for 
symbolism  were  a  tall  upright  stone  (menhir),  a  cone,  a 
pyramid,  a  thumb  or  finger  pointed  straight,  a  mast,  a  rod,  a 
trident,  a  narrow  bottle  or  amphora,  a  bow,  an  arrow,  a 
lance,  a  horse,  a  bull,  a  lion  and  many  other  animals  con- 
spicuous for  masculine  powxr.  As  symbols  of  the  female,  the 
passive  though  fruitful  element  in  creation,  the  crescent 


118  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

moon,  the  earth,  darkness,  water,  and  its  emblem  a  triangle 
with  its  apex  downward,  "the  yoni,"  a  shallow  vessel  or  cup 
for  pouring  fluid  into  (cratera)  a  ring  or  oval,  a  lozenge,  any 
narrow  cleft,  either  natural  or  artificial,  an  arch  or  doorway, 
were  employed.  In  the  same  category  of  symbols  came  a 
ship  or  boat,  the  female  date-palm  bearing  fruit,  a  cow  with 
her  calf  by  her  side,  the  fish,  fruits  having  many  seeds, 
such  as  the  pomegranate,  a  shell  (concha),  a  cavern,  a 
garden,  a  fountain,  a  bower,  a  rose,  a  fig  and  other  things 
of  suggestive  form,  etc." 

To  illustrate  how  the  dream  makes  use  of  symbolisms  I 
will  cite  the  following  dreams:  A  woman  of  forty  years 
related  this  dream:  "7  saw  my  son  L.  jammed  in  the  fire- 
place and  tried  to  get  him  out,  but  I  couldn't.  I  was 
awfully  frightened  and  called  out,  'Papa,  papa.'"  She 
laughingly  added,  "You  will  probably  find  something 
sexual  in  it." 

When  the  dreamer  finds  it  necessary  to  add  such  a  re- 
mark it  is  always  well  to  think  of  the  saying,  "Many  a 
truth  is  said  in  jest."  When  I  questioned  her  about  the 
dream,  she  stated  that  "papa"  in  the  dream  did  not  mean 
her  father  but  her  lodger,  who  is  so  nicknamed.  As  she 
could  give  no  associations  to  "fireplace"  I  took  it  to  be 
a  symbol  for  the  vagina.  The  other  facts  are  as  follows: 
This  woman  has  been  a  grass  widow  for  years  and  suffered 
much  from  lack  of  sexual  gratification.  She  was  anxious 
to  enter  into  an  amour  with  "Papa,"-  but  was  deterred 
by  the  fear  of  pregnancy.  She  had  an  affair  before  and 
had  to  go  through  a  rather  bad  abortion.  Her  son  who 
was  in  the  fireplace  in  the  dream  is  nineteen  years  old. 
She  recalled  that  when  she  became  pregnant  with  him  she 


DREAMS  119 

went  through  a  severe  hysterical  attack.  She  was  afraid 
of  pregnancy  and  childbirth  and  implored  her  family 
physician  to  produce  an  abortion.  He  refused  to  help 
her  so  she  herself  tried  everything  she  knew  of,  but  to  no 
avail.  The  dream,  therefore,  repeats  an  incident  of 
nineteen  years  ago.  At  that  time  her  son  was  jammed 
in  the  "fireplace"  and  she  couldn't  get  him  out.  For  the 
previous  few  weeks  she  was  occupied  with  a  similar 
situation.  She  often  said  to  herself  "if  he  (Papa)  would 
take  care,  I  would  have  nothing  to  fear."  In  the  dream 
she  actually  calls  upon  him  to  do  this,  but  the  erstwhile 
embryo  is  replaced  by  her  son  as  he  is  now. 

The  following  dream  symbolizes  a  popular  sajring:  Miss  ^.  dreamed 
that  she  " passed  a  very  tall  building,  from  which  smoke  came  out.  Then 
some  flames  burst  forth.     I  could  feel  the  awful  heat." 

Analysis:  Miss  S.  is  not  very  fortunate  in  love.  She  is  well  edu- 
cated, intelligent  and  good-looking,  but  a  little  too  reserved  to  suit  the 
average  young  man.  She  had  many  admirers,  but  for  some  reason  or 
other  the  ehgible  man  either  failed  to  appear  or  made  httle  progress 
toward  matrimony.  The  day  before  the  dream  she  visited  a  friend, 
who  jokiugly  teased  her  about  T.,  one  of  her  admirers.  She  heard  that 
he  was  a  "steady  caller,"  as  she  put  it,  and  wanted  to  know  when  the 
engagement  would  be  announced,  and  so  on.  Miss  S.  was  embar- 
rassed, and  protested  that  there  was  no  truth  in  the  rumor,  that  it  was 
nothing  but  idle  gossip.  Secretly,  however,  she  cherished  the  thought 
that  T.  might  marry  her.  The  conversation  ended  with  the  signifi- 
cant remark  from  her  friend:  "Where  there's  smoke  there  must  be 
fire."  The  dream  fulfils  her  wish.  The  very  tall  building  is  herseK — 
she  is  very  tall.  She  sees  the  smoke,  then  the  flames  and  can  feel  the 
awful  heat.  The  saying,  "Where  there  is  smoke  there  is  fire,"  is 
simply  visuaUzed  by  the  dream,  and  as  the  dreamer  is  the  chief  actor 
of  the  dream  she  is  the  tall  building.  A  building  or  house,  as  is  well 
known,  is  an  old  symbol  for  the  body.*  We  often  speak  of  the  body 
as  the  house  we  Uve  in.     Fire  and  heat  are  symbols  of  love.     The 

*Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  319. 


120  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

dream  thus  shows  that  it  is  not  mere  gossip,  but  that  there  is  not 
only  smoke  but  fire. 

This  symboHc  dream  was  brought  by  a  young  married  woman,  and 
reads  as  follows:  "Mr.  E.  sent  two  stick-pins,  one  to  my  husband  and  one 
to  my  sister,  and  I  was  angry  because  he  didn't  send  me  one.  There 
was  also  something  about  a  brush."  When  I  asked  the  patient  to  tell  me 
something  about  Mr.  E.  she  stated  that  he  was  her  husband's  friend, 
that  she  was  very  fond  of  him,  but  that  she  did  not  like  his  outspoken 
plain  way  of  expression.  Thus,  she  went  on  to  say,  "The  last  time  I 
saw  him  was  at  the  theater.  He  sat  next  to  me,  and  his  excuse  for 
coming  late  was  that  he  witnessed  a  cow  dropping  a  calf."  Being  an 
overmodest  woman,  she  was  very  much  shocked  to  hear  him  tell  this. 
When  I  remonstrated  with  her  that  a  married  woman  ought  not  to  be 
shocked  by  such  news,  she  said  that  she  was  not  the  only  woman  tak- 
ing exceptions  to  his  waj^  of  talking,  and  that  although  a  perfect  gentle- 
man he  had  the  reputation  of  being  very  fond  of  the  ladies.  When  I 
asked  her  to  tell  me  about  her  sister,  L.,  she  said  she  meant  the  one 
who  married  recently  a  man  much  younger  than  herself,  who  is  a  mere 
boy.  She  then  volunteered  the  information  that  she  took  her  sister  to 
Doctor  X.  (a  well-known  gynecologist),  and  as  her  sister  does  not  think 
much  of  doctors,  she  found  it  very  difficult  to  get  her  to  go  to  a  physi- 
cian for  examination.  When  I  asked  her  what  was  wrong  with  her 
sister,  she  finally  told  me  that  she  first  suspected  pregnancy,  but  that 
after  the  examination  the  doctor  told  her  that  her  sister  was  still  a 
virgin  and  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  with  her  husband.  If 
I  add  that  her  own  husband  suffered  from  a  relative  impotence,  we  can 
understand  why  Mr.  E.,  who  symbolizes  the  virile  man,  sends  her  sister 
and  her  own  husband  stick-pins.*  We  have  still  to  explain  the  last 
part  of  the  dream  in  which  there  was  something  about  a  brush.  \\Tien  I 
drew  her  into  conversation,  I  discovered  that  when  some  of  the  more 
interested  members  of  the  familj^  suspected  pregnancy  they  were  not  at 
all  pleased.  The  young  husband  was  in  no  position  to  take  care  of  his 
wife,  let  alone  of  children,  and  one  of  the  cousins,  hearing  that  she  was 
going  to  be  examined  by  a  doctor,  said  to  my  patient,  "If  the  doctor 
finds  that  she  is  in  the  family  way  get  him  to  brush  it  out."  We  can 
now  see  that  this  dream,  too,  is  a  symbolic  representation  of  hidden 
wishes,  and  how  nicely  the  associations  tell  the  story.  Mr.  E.,  the 
virile  ladies'  man;  the  reminiscence  of  the  cow  and  calf,  which  shows 

*For  a  similar  symbolization  of  stick-pins,  cf.  p.  69. 


DREAMS  121 

that  the  dream  deals  with  childbirth;  the  stick-pins,  which  symbolize 
the  male  member,  and  the  brush  which  stands  for  abortion,  all  these 
were  very  important  factors  in  my  patient's  life. 

The  symbolism  in  the  dream  is  the  same  to-day  as  it 
was  in  the  Bibhcal  times  when  Joseph  acted  the  part  of 
the  oneiroscopist,  and  as  we  still  see  it  in  the  dream  books. 
But,  whereas  the  ancients  and  the  laity  of  to-daj'^  ignore 
their  own  subjective  mind  and  seek  interpretation 
from  magicians  and  dream  books,  we  allow  the  dreamer 
to  interpret  his  own  dreams  and  to  find  the  symbolisms 
in  his  own  mind.  What  we  do  is  simply  to  call  his  atten- 
tion to  the  different  connections  which  he  himself  generally 
cannot  see  because  of  his  own  critique,  prejudices  and 
resistances. 

We  also  differ  from  the  ancients  and  laity  by  not  seeing 
in  the  dream  the  future,  but  rather  the  past.  Yet,  in  a 
way,  the  dream  is  also  related  to  the  future  inasmuch  as 
its  fulfilled  wish  represents  what  we  are  striving  for.  This, 
in  my  opinion,  explains  the  ancient  and  modern  super- 
stition regarding  the  future  reahzation  of  dreams.  It 
has  its  origin  in  incidents  resembhng  the  dream  of  Miss  G. 
and  those  of  the  children  mentioned  before.  Thus  both 
children  forced  their  parents  to  fulfil  their  wishes.  In 
order  to  appease  her  little  girl  the  mother  had  to  procure 
for  her  some  chocolate  almonds  and  the  boy  did  not  stop 
crjang  until  his  mother  gave  him  the  money  of  his  dreanv' 

There  are  dreams  which  continue  to  manifest  themselves 
for  weeks  and  months  until  the  wish  they  contain  is 
actually  realized.  A  chronic  alcoholic  showing  delusions 
of  jealously  disHked  a  dog  because  his  wife  ''was  more 
attached  to  the  dog  than  to  him."     He  continued  to  dream 


122  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

at  different  times  that  the  dog  was  run  over,  taken  away 
by  the  dogcatcher,  etc.,  until  one  day  during  his  wife's 
absence  he  really  disposed  of  it.  Here  the  dream  osten- 
sibly treated  of  the  future,  at  least  so  the  wife  thought 
on  her  return  home.  "Poor  Fido,"  she  exclaimed,  "John 
(husband)  dreamed  only  last  week  that  he  was  caught 
by  the  dogcatchers  and  now  the  dream  has  come  true." 
This  is  the  so-called  resolution  dream. '^^  The  person 
resolves,  perhaps  unconsciously,  to  do  a  certain  thing 
and  the  dream  continues  to  represent  it  as  realized 
until  it  is  actually  accomplished.  This  explains  the 
mechanism  cf  the  "dreams  that  come  true."  I  have 
analyzed  a  number  of  such  dreams  and  all  showed  that  the 
wish  always  preceded  the  event  in  question.  Thus  one 
of  my  patients  dreamed  that  her  brother  who  lived  in 
another  city  was  dead,  and  after  relating  her  dream  to 
her  husband  received  word  that  her  brother  had  really 
died.  The  analysis  showed  that  her  brother  suffered  from 
chronic  tuberculosis  which  the  doctors  declared  fatal 
months  before.  She  was  fully  aware  of  the  gravity  of  his 
malady  and  often  thought  that  he  would  be  better  off 
dead  than  alive.  Her  mother  lived  with  her,  but,  owing 
to  her  brother's  illness  she  stayed  with  him.  She  was 
nearing  the  end  of  a  pregnancy  and  daily  hoped  that  her 
mother  would  return  before  her  confinement.  This 
recalled  similar  experiences  of  childhood  when  her 
mother  often  neglected  her  for  the  same  brother  because 
he  was  very  delicate  and  sickly.  As  a  child  she  often 
wished  him  dead,  a  thing  quite  common  among  children 
to  whom  the  idea  of  death  means  simply  to  be  away. 
The   conscious  wish     he   would  be  better  off  dead  than 


DREAMS  123 

alive"  became  the  dream  inciter  because  it  succeeded  in 
arousing  a  similar  infantile  wish.  For,  as  Freud  says, 
"The  conscious  wish  becomes  a  dream  incitor  only  when  it 
succeeds  in  arousing  a  similar  unconscious  one,"  and  "The 
wish  as  represented  in  the  dream  must  be  an  infantile  one,"  ^^ 

The  reahzation  of  our  waking  dreams  shows  precisely 
the  same  mechanisms.  This  can  be  observed  not  only  in 
the  individual,  but  in  whole  races.  We  all  know  that  the 
Leitmotif  of  orthodox  Judaism  is  and  always  has  been  the 
reestablishment  of  a  Jewish  nationahty,  the  "return  to 
Jerusalem;"  and  should  Zionism  ever  succeed  in  obtaining 
Palestine,  the  Bibhcal  dreams,  the  prophecies  would  be  con- 
sidered as  having  "come  true."  Popular  language 
expresses  the  idea  in  the  saying,  "Where  there  is  a  will  there 
is  a  way." 

What  was  said  of  real  dreams  is  also  true  of  artificial 
dreams.  By  artificial  dreams  we  understand  those  dreams 
which  a  person  consciously  makes  up  at  the  request  of  the 
physician.  The  patient  is  requested  to  make  up  a  dream 
by  imitating  what  he  regards  as  a  real  dream.  He  is  in- 
structed to  talk  at  random  without  guiding  his  thoughts. 
The  production  obtained  in  this  manner  is  analyzed  in 
accordance  with  the  rules.  I  resort  to  artificial  dreams 
whenever  a  patient  fails  to  bring  me  dreams,  claiming 
that  he  does  not  dream,  or  whenever  a  patient  suddenly 
stops  dreaming  because  of  some  unconscious  resistance. 
Analysis  of  such  a  dream  usuallj'-  brings  to  the  surface  the 
factors  which  were  at  the  bases  of  these  resistances,  which 
can  then  be  removed.  The  following  dream  was  "made 
up"  by  a  young  lady  of  twenty-nine  years  who  suffered 
from  a  very  deep  depression:   "/  see  a  horrible  ghastly 


124  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

object,  it  is  some  animal;  it  breathes  under  the  water;  I  wish 
'  to  pull  it  out  but  I  cannot.     Now  it  is  coming  up. 

With  extreme  difficulty  she  gave  enough  associations  to 

5  show  the  exciting  cause  of  her  malady:  An  illicit  affair, 

mnsuccessful  attempts  to  produce  an  abortion  which  was 

^finally   finished   by   a   kindly   disposed   family  physician. 

/Many  more  examples  could  be  given  to  show  that  there  is  no 

,  material  difference  between  natural  and  artificial  dreams."*' 

These  brief  analyses  distinctly  show  the  connection 
between  dreams,  psychoses,  and  neuroses.  I  am  quite 
convinced  that  had  we  not  analyzed  the  dream,  the  psychic 
conflicts  underlying  the  neurosis  of  Miss  G.  could  not  have 
been  discovered,  as  they  were  unconscious  to  the  patient, 
and  that  she  would  have  merged  into  a  chronic  neurosis. 
Very  soon  afte-r  the  complexes  were  discovered  and  brought 
to  her  consciousness  her  symptoms  began  to  disappear 
and  within  two  months  she  was  perfectly  cured.  It  must 
be  added  that  besides  analyzing  the  dream  her  other  symp- 
toms had  to  be  explained  to  her.  Thus  her  abnormal 
attachment  to  her  mother  disappeared  as  soon  as  she  be- 
came conscious  of  the  fact  that  it  was  hiding  a  repressed 
wish  that  her  mother  might  die  so  that  she  could  use  the 
estate  to  assist  Mr.  F.  The  insight  and  psychological 
education  which  she  gained  during  the  analysis  also  helped 
her  to  overcome  some  of  her  false  pride  and  prudishness, 
and  as  a  result  she  is  now  happily  married  to  Mr.  F.  Thus 
her  wish  was  realized. 

RESUME 

1.  As  Freud  has  shown,  dreams  are  perfect  psychological 
mechanisms.  They  have  a  definite  meaning  which  always 
deals  with  the  dreamers  most  intimate  life. 


DREAMS  125 

2.  As  the  function  of  the  dream  is  to  guard  against 
disturbances  of  sleep  it  is  perforce  a  wish  fulfilling 
phenomenon. 

3.  Dreams  like  neurotic  and  psychotic  symptoms  are 
always  based  on  unrealizable  mental  and  emotional  occur- 
rences. 

4.  Dreams  are  distorted  or  symbolic  expressions  of 
actual  or  fancied  experiences  which  had  to  be  subjected 
to  repression  in  consequence  of  their  contra  social  character. 

5.  As  cultural  society  demands  more  control  and  suppres- 
sion of  sex  than  of  any  other  biologic  function,  every 
dream  contains  some  factors  of  the   dreamers  love  life. 

References 

1.  Sante  de  Sanctis.  Les  Maladies  mental  et  les  reves,  1897. 
Extrait  des  Annales  de  la  Society  de  medecine  de  Gand. 

Ideler:  Ueber  die  Entstehung  des  Wahnsinns  aus  Traumen. 
Charite  Annalen,  III,  p.  284,  1862. 

Fere:  A  Contribution  to  the  Pathology  of  Dreams.  Brain,  IX) 
1887. 

Lasegue:  Le  Delire  alcoolique  nest  pas  u  delire  mais  un  reve. 
Archives  general  de  medecine,  1881. 

Sully,  J.:  The  Dream  as  a  Revelation.  Fortnightly  Review, 
March,  1893. 

2.  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams.  George  Allan  Co., 
London,  and  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.  Translated  by  A.  A. 
Brill. 

3.  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria  and  Psychoneurosis.  Trans- 
lated by  A.  A.  Brill,  Monograph  Series  of  Journal  of  Nervous  and 
Mental  Dis.  Co. 

4.  Jung:  The  Psychology  of  Dementia  Prsecox.  Translated  by 
Peterson  and  Brill,  Monograph  Series  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental 
Dis.  Co. 

5.  Freud :  The  Psycho  pathology  of  Every  Day  Life,  Unwin,  London. 
Cf.  also  Chap.  II. 


I 


126  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

6.  Cf.  Chap.  VIII. 

7.  For  the  mechanism  of  jokes  cf.  Chap.  XVII. 

8.  CJ.  Chap.  IV. 

9.  For  an  excellent  example  of  this  mechanism  see  Chap.  I,  p.  29. 

10.  Stekel,   W.:  Nervose  Angstzustande  und  ihre  Behandlung,  p. 
117.  Jl 

11.  Die  Diagnose  der  Homosexualitat,  Neurolog.  Zentralbl.,  1908, 
p.  338. 

12.  Cf.  Chap.  VIII. 

13.  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  234. 

14.  Papers  on  Psychoanalysis,  p.  346. 

15.  Dreams  as  a  Cause  of  Symptoms,  Jour.  Abn.  Psychol.,  Oct.- 
Nov.,  1910,  p.  196. 

16.  Beers:  A  Mmd  that  Found  Itself,  pp.  39,  40,  2d  ed. 

17.  Inman:   Ancient   Pagan   and    Modern   Christian   Symbolism, 
p.  115. 

18.  Freud:  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  Zweite 
Folge,  p.  59;  Deuticke,  Wien,  1909. 

19.  Freud:  The  Intrepretation  of  Dreams,  p.  439. 

20.  Similar  views  were  expressed  by  Bleuler  and  Stekel. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  ACTUAL  NEUROSES 

Neurasthenia   and    Anxiety  Neurosis;    their   Symptoms, 
Mechanism,  Etiology  and  Relation  to  the 
Psychoneuroses 

Freud  divides  the  neuroses  into  psycho-  and  actual 
neuroses.  The  psychoneuroses  comprise  hysteria  and 
compulsion  neurosis  (doubts,  obsessions  and  phobias) 
while  the  actual  neuroses  include  neurasthenia  and  anxiety 
neurosis.  The  sexual  life  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
determination  of  both  classes.  But  whereas  hysteria  and 
compulsion  neurosis  are  altogether  of  psychogenetic 
origin,  neurasthenia  and  anxiety  neurosis  are  due  to  so- 
matic sexual  injuries. 

As  the  typical  symptoms  of  neurasthenia  Freud  men- 
tions headache,  or  pressure  in  the  head,  spinal  irritation, 
dyspepsia  with  flatulence,  and  constipation.  By  adhering 
closely  to  these  symptoms  one  can  easily  differen- 
tiate the  real  neurasthenia  from  the  pseudo-neurasthenias 
such  as  the  organically  determined  nasal  reflex  neurosis, 
the  neurotic  disturbances  of  cachexias  and  arterio- 
sclerosis, the  early  stages  of  general  paresis,  and  some  of 
the  psychoses.  Concerning  the  etiology  Freud  says 
"Neurasthenia  always  originates  whenever  the  ade- 
quate (action)  or  unburdening  is  replaced  by  a  less  adequate 
one,  like  the  normal  coitus  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions by  a  masturbation  or  spontaneous  pollution."^ 

127 


128  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Bearing  in  mind  this  symptom-complex,  neurasthenia 
ceases  to  be  the  "big  garbage  can,"  as  Forel  fitly  calls  it, 
and  becomes  a  rather  limited  entity.  For  it  is  known  to 
every  observer  in  this  field  that  neurasthenia  in  the  gener- 
ally accepted  sense  may  comprise  almost  anything  from 
anxiety  neurosis  to  psychoses  proper.  Well  developed 
cases  of  dementia  prsecox,  paresis  and  other  psychoses  are 
often  diagnosed  and  treated  for  months,  even  years,  as 
neurasthenics.  The  more  neurotics  I  see  the  less  neuras- 
thenics I  diagnose. 

That  anxiety  plays  a  part  in  the  neuroses  was  fully 
recognized  by  almost  all  writers  on  this  subject;  but  its 
isolation  into  a  separate  entity  and  its  reference  to  a 
special  sexual  etiology  was  first  established  hy  Freud  in 
his  dissertation,  ''On  the  Right  to  Separate  from  Neuras- 
thenia a  Definite  Symptom  Complex  as  Anxiety  Neurosis. "^ 

Before  going  into  the  etiology  of  anxiety  neurosis  I  will 
first  enumerate  the  clinical  symptoms  which  are  as  follows: 

1.  General  irritability.  This  frequent  symptom  espe- 
cially expresses  itself  in  auditory  hyperesthesia  and  is  a 
frequent  cause  of  insomnia  of  which  more  than  one  form 
belongs  to  anxiety  neurosis. 

2.  Anxious  expectation,  which  manifests  itself  in  an 
uneasiness  and  a  tendency  to  pessimistic  conception  of 
things,  or  in  a  tendency  to  "make  mountains  out  of  mole 
hills."  Persons  showing  this  symptom  evince  a  frequent 
tendency  to  pangs  of  conscience,  scrupulosity  and  ped- 
antry. Thus  a  man  who  suffered  from  anxious  expec- 
tation thought  that  something  might  have  happened  to 
his  mother  because  there  was  a  thunder-storm  while  she 
was  riding  in  a  train.     He  was  anxiously  waiting  for  news 


THE    ACTUAL    NEUROSES  129 

of  some  disaster  and  was  not  relieved  until  he  heard 
that  she  had  reached  her  destination.  Anxious  expecta- 
tion is  the  most  essential  symptom  of  the  neurosis.  There 
seems  to  be  a  quantum  of  freely  floating  anxiety  which  is 
forever  ready  to  attach  itself  to  suitable  ideations. 

3.  Anxiousness  can  also  suddenly  break  into  conscious- 
ness without  being  aroused  by  the  issue  of  an  idea.  Such 
attacks  consist  either  of  the  anxious  feeling  alone  without 
any  associated  idea  or  they  deal  with  the  most  obvious 
interpretation  of  the  destruction  of  life,  such  as  ideas  of 
sudden  death  or  threatening  insanity.  The  anxious  feeling 
may  be  combined  with  a  disturbance  of  one  or  many  somatic 
functions,  such  as  respiration,  cardiac  activity,  the  vaso- 
motor innervation  and  the  glandular  activity.  The  pa- 
tient may  complain  of  ''heart  spasm,"  "heavy  breathing," 
"inordinate  appetite,"  "profuse  perspiration,"  "feeling 
badly,"  etc. 

4.  The  proportion  in  which  these  elements  mix  varies 
extraordinarily,  and  any  one  of  the  accompanying  symptoms 
may  constitute  the  attack.  Accordingly,  there  are  rudi- 
mentary attacks  of  anxiety  and  equivalents  for  the  attack  of 
anxiety.     The  following  equivalents  may  be  mentioned: 

(a)  Attacks  of  disturbance  of  heart  action,  ranging 
from  palpitation,  transitory  arhythmia  with  longer  con- 
tinued tachycardia,  to  grave  states  of  heart  weakness. 
These  are  not  always  easy  to  differentiate  from  organic 
heart  affections.  It  may  also  manifest  itself  in  pseudo- 
angina  pectoris,  a  delicate  diagnostic  sphere. 

(6)  Attacks  of  respiratory  disturbances,  many  forms  of 
nervous  dyspnoea  and  asthma-like  attacks. 

(c)  Attacks  of  profuse  perspiration,  often  nocturnal. 


130  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

(d)  Attacks  of  trembling  and  shaking  which  may  be 
readily  mistaken  for  hysterical  attacks. 

(e)  Attacks  ©f  inordinate  appetite,  often  combined 
with  dizziness. 

(/)  Attacks  of  diarrhoea. 

(g)  Attacks  of  locomotor  dizziness. 

(h)  Attacks  of  congestion  embracing  also  the  so-called 
vasomotor  neurasthenia. 

(i)  Attacks  of  paresthesias  (these  are  seldom  without 
anxiety  or  a  similar  discomfort). 

(i)  Sudden  terrified  awakening. 

(k)  Frequency  of  micturition. 

(I)  Cramplike  muscular  attacks. 

5.  Nocturnal  frights  (pavor  nocturnus  of  adults) 
usually  accompanied  by  anxiety,  dyspnoea,  perspiration, 
etc.,  are  only  a  variety  of  the  anxiety  attack  and  determine 
a  second  form  of  insomnia  in  the  sphere  of  anxiety  neurosis. 
The  pavor  nocturnus  of  children  belongs  to  the  same 
neurosis. 

6.  A  prominent  symptom  of  anxiety  neurosis  is  vertigo 
which  in  its  lightest  form  may  be  designated  as  "dizziness." 
Attacks  of  vertigo  with  or  without  fear  belong  to  the 
gravest  symptoms  of  the  neurosis.  This  form  of  vertigo  is 
neither  a  rotatory  dizziness  nor  is  it  confined  to  certain 
planes  or  lines  like  Menier's  vertigo.  It  consists  in  a 
specific  feeling  of  discomfort  accompanied  by  sensations 
of  a  heaving  ground,  sinking  legs,  of  the  impossibility  of 
remaijiing  in  an  upright  position,  and  at  the  same  time 
there  is  a  feeling  that  the  legs  are  as  heavy  as  lead,  that  they 
shake  and  give  way.  This  vertigo  almost  never  leads  to 
falling. 


THE    ACTUAL    NEUROSES.  131 

7.  Two  groups  of  typical  phobias  develop  on  the  basis 
of  the  chronic  anxiousness,  anxious  expectation  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  tendency  to  vertiginous  anxiety 
attacks  on  the  other.  In  the  first  group  we  have  the 
fear  of  snakes,  thunderstorms,  darkness,  vermin,  etc., 
as  well  as  the  typical  moral  overscrupulousness  and  the 
forms  of  folie  du  doute.  The  available  fear  is  here  used  to 
strengthen  the  instinctive  aversions  implanted  in  every 
man.  The  second  group  comprises  agoraphobia  with 
all  its  accessory  forms,  all  of  which  are  characterized  by 
their  relation  to  locomotion.  The  phobia  is  usually  de- 
termined by  a  precedent  attack  of  vertigo. 

8.  The  disturbances  of  the  digestive  functions  are  few, 
but  are  characteristic.  One  often  finds  the  sensations  of 
nausea  and  sickly  feeling.  The  symptom  of  inordinate 
appetite  with  or  without  congestion  may  serve  as  a  rudi- 
mentary attack  of  anxiety.  The  tendency  to  diarrhoea 
which  is  a  chronic  alteration  analogous  to  the  anxious 
expectation  has  occasioned  the  queerest  diagnostic 
mistakes. 

9.  The  paresthesias  which  accompany  the  attacks  of 
vertigo  or  anxiety  associate  themselves  into  a  firm  sequence 
resembhng  the  sensation  of  the  hysterical  aura.  These 
associated  sensations  are  changeable  and  atypical,  but 
they  sometimes  become  converted  into  physical  sensations 
like  rheumatic  pains. 

THE  OCCURRENCE  AND  ETIOLOGY  OF  ANXIETY  NEUROSIS 

In  some  cases  of  anxiety  neurosis  no  etiology  can  be 
readily  found,  but  in  such  cases  one  can  usually  find  a 
marked    hereditary    taint.     Whenever    the    neurosis    is 


132  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

acquired  one  can  always  find  "that  the  etiologically 
effective  factors  are  based  on  a  series  of  injuries  and 
influences  from  the  sexualHfe."^  These  injuries  and  influ- 
ences may  be  either  found  alone  or  are  reinforced  by  other 
banal  injuries. 

To  give  a  more  precise  description  of  the  etiological 
determinants  of  anxiety  neurosis  Freud  separates  those 
occurring  in  men  from  those  occurring  in  women.  Re- 
gardless of  disposition  anxiety  neurosis  appears  in  women 
under  the  following  forms: 

(a)  As  virginal  fear,  or  anxiety  in  adults.  Many  definite 
observations  show  that  an  anxiety  neurosis  almost  typic- 
ally combined  with  hysteria  can  be  evoked  in  maturing 
girls  at  their  first  encounter  with  the  sexual  problem, 
either  through  seeing  or  through  hearing  or  reading  of  sex. 

(6)  As  fear  in  the  newly  married.  Young  women  who 
remain  anesthetic  during  the  first  coitus  often  merge  into 
an  anxiety  neurosis  which  disappears  after  the  anesthesia 
is  replaced  by  normal  feeling. 

(c)  As  fear  in  women  whose  husbands  suffer  from  ejacu- 
latio  praecox  or  from  diminished  potency;  and 

(d)  In  those  whose  husbands  practice  coitus  interruptus 
or  reservatus.  These  cases  go  together  for  they  only  de- 
pend on  whether  the  woman  attains  gratification  during 
coitus  or  not.  The  determinant  for  the  origin  of  the 
anxiety  neurosis  is  found  in  the  latter  case.  But  if  the 
husband  suffering  from  ejaculatio  praecox  can  repeat  coitus 
with  better  results  immediately  thereafter  the  wife  will 
not  merge  into  the  neurosis.  Coitus  interruptus  is  only 
injurious  for  the  wife  if  the  husband  interrupts  coitus  as 
soon  as  he  is  about  to  ejaculate  without  concerning  him- 


THE    ACTUAL   NEUROSES  133 

self  about  bringing  to  an  end  the  excitement  of  his  wife. 
If  he  waits  until  his  wife  is  gratified  the  process  has  the 
same  effect  on  her  as  normal  coitus,  but  then  he  may  be- 
come afflicted  with  anxiety  neurosis.  I  have  on  record 
more  than  30  cases  which  fully  confirm  the  above  state- 
ments. 

(e)  As  anxiety  in  widows  and  intentional  abstainers, 
often  in  typical  combination  with  obsessions,  and 

(f)  As  anxiety  in  the  climacterium  during  the  last  marked 
enhancement  of  the  sexual  impulse. 

The  forms  (c),  (d)  and  (e)  contain  the  determinants 
under  which  the  anxiety  neurosis  originates  in  the  female 
most  frequently  and  most  independently  of  hereditary 
predisposition.  The  determinants  of  anxiety  neurosis  in 
the  male  find  their  analogy  in  the  female  and  are  formu- 
lated into  the  f crowing  groups: 

(a)  Anxiety  of  the  intentional  abstainer;  this  is  fre- 
quently combined  with  symptoms  of  defense  (obsessions, 
hysteria). 

(6)  Anxiety  in  men  with  frustrated  excitement  (during 
the  engagement  period);  persons  who  fearing  the  conse- 
quences of  sexual  relations  gratify  themselves  by  handhng 
and  looking  at  the  woman.  These  determinants  hold  true 
also  for  the  woman  (prolonged  engagements  with  frus- 
trated excitement)  and  furnish  the  purest  cases  of  anxiety 
neurosis.  I  have  seen  so  many  of  these  cases  that  nowa- 
days when  a  young  person  consults  me  about  anxiety 
attacks  and  I  fail  to  discover  any  organic  trouble  I  in- 
variably tell  him  or  her  that  he  will  have  to  stop  his  frus- 
trated indulgences.  The  patients  invariably  admit  my 
assumption  and  wonder  how  I  knew  of  their  intimate  acts. 


134  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

(c)  Anxiety  in  men  who  practise  coitus  interruptus. 
This  form  of  coitus  injures  the  woman  if  practised  regard- 
less of  her  gratification,  but  it  may  also  injure  the  man  if 
in  order  to  gratify  his  wife  he  voluntarily  controls  coitus 
by  delaying  the  ejaculation. 

(d)  Anxiety  in  men  during  the  period  of  senility.  Some 
men  go  through  a  climacterium  like  women  and  may 
merge  into  an  anxiety  neurosis  when  their  potency  dimin- 
ishes and  their  libido  increases.  This  case  and  (c)  hold 
true  for  both  sexes. 

(e)  Masturbating  neurasthenics  may  merge  into  anxiety 
neurosis  as  soon  as  they  stop  masturbating  as  their  former 
life  has  made  them  especially  Unfit  to  lead  a  life  of 
abstinence. 

(J)  This  last  determinant  is  really  not  of  a  sexual  nature. 
Both  sexes  may  merge  into  anxiety  neurosis  through  con- 
siderable overwork,  exhaustive  exertion  such  as  sleepless 
nights,  nursing  the  sick  or  even  serious  illnesses.  Here,  too, 
I  have  never  seen  a  lack  of  the  sexual  factors. 

The  facts  thus  far  enumerated  go  to  show  that  in  anx- 
iety neurosis  we  deal  with  an  accumulation  of  sexual 
excitement  and  that  the  anxiety  underlying  the  mani- 
festations of  the  neurosis  is  not  of  psychic,  but  of  somatic 
origin.  Moreover,  it  has  been  found  since  that  a  whole 
series  of  cases  of  this  neurosis  shows  marked  diminution 
of  the  sexual  desire.  This  is  true  to  such  an  extent,  that  on 
revealing  to  the  patients  that  their  affliction  depends  on 
"insufficient  gratification,"  they  regularly  reply  that  this  is 
impossible  as  just  now  their  whole  desire  is  extinguished. 
All  these  indications  favor  the  assumption  "that  the 
mechanism  of  the  anxiety  neurosis  is  to  be  found  in  the 


THE    ACTUAL   NEUROSES  135 

deviation  of  the  somatic  sexual  excitement  from  the  psychic 
and  in  the  abnormal  utilization  of  this  excitement  caused 
thereby."^ 

Hence  we  see  that  the  actual  neuroses,  neurasthenia 
and  anxiety  neurosis,  differ  materially  from  the  psycho- 
neuroses,  compulsion  neurosis  and  hysteria.  The  latter 
group  are  due  to  purely  psychogenetic  factors,  while  the 
first  are  due  to  somatic  sexual  injuries. 

I  have  pointed  out  above  that  the  characteristic  factor  of 
hysteria,  according  to  Freud,  is  the  ability  to  convert  the 
psychic  into  the  physical.  That  is,  whenever  we  find  the 
classical  symptoms  of  hysteria,  such  as  paralyses,  con- 
tractures, aphonias,  convulsions,  astasia  abasia,  etc.,  we 
deal  with  a  conversion  hysteria.  In  contradistinction  to 
this,  the  symptoms  due  to  somatic  sexual  injuries  belong 
to  anxiety  neurosis. 

It  was  found,  however,  that  no  definite  lines  could  be 
drawn;  that  besides  the  somatic  sexual  injuries  the  anxiety 
neuroses  also  showed  a  psychic  mechanism.  This  psychic 
mechanism  is  the  same  as  in  hysteria,  but  instead  of 
conversion  into  physical  symptoms  there  is  anxiety. 
"The  anxiety  is,  as  it  were,  the  only  symptom  into  which 
the  psychic  excitement  is  converted."  The  etiology,  the 
role  of  repression  and  the  psychic  processes  are  the  same 
as  in  hysteria.  For  this  new  class  of  cases  Freud  sug- 
gested the  term  "anxiety  hysteria"  and  the  whole  group 
was  first  described  by  Stekel  in  his  interesting  and 
instructive  book.^ 

My  own  experience,  based  on  the  observation  of  a  great 
many  cases  of  anxiety  neurosis  taught  me  that  there  is  a 
psychic   element   in    almost   all    cases.     I    could    demon- 


136  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

strate  it  in  nearly  all  my  cases  and  I  must  confess  that, 
owing  to  lack  of  opportunity  and  personal  resistances  (it 
concerned  elderly  illiterate  patients  from  clinical  dispen- 
sary practice)  I  did  not  try  hard  enough  to  ascertain  the 
true  circumstances  in  the  others.  I  can  say,  however, 
that  even  those  patients  were  cured  and  some  greatly 
benefited  by  advising  them  properly  concerning  their 
sexual  lives. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  advise  the  use  of  the  condom  when 
it  is  a  question  of  coitus  interruptus.  The  condom  prop- 
erly used — lubrication  of  penis  and  moistening  or  lubrica- 
tion of  condom  after  it  is  in  place — is  the  nearest  substitute 
for  normal  coitus.  I  might  add  that  I  have  always  been  in 
favor  of  instructing  people  in  correct  methods  of  contra- 
ception. Aside  from  the  fact  that  improper  sexual  relations 
do  much  harm  to  the  individual,  I  feel  that  it  is  wrong  to 
force  normal  people  to  reproduce  offsprings  when  they 
have  good  reasons  against  it.  Such  children  invariably 
turn  out  to  be  neurotics. 

As  the  few  remarks  about  masturbation  in  the  former 
editions  of  this  book  have  evoked  an  unusual  interest  in  the 
subject  I  decided  to  discuss  this  subject  in  the  next  chapter. 

As  I  said  before  in  almost  all  these  cases  there  is  a  psychic 
element  and  when  this  is  found  we  must  not  only  correct 
the  abnormal  sexual  life,  but  to  cure  the  patient  we  must 
resort,  in  addition,  to  psychoanalysis.  As  an  example 
of  an  anxiety  hysteria  of  this  type  I  will  give  the  following 
case: 

Mrs.  L.,  thirty-eight  years  old,  Austrian,  married,  having  four 
healthy  children,  was  seen  by  me  in  the  department  of  psychiatry 
in  the  Vanderbilt  Clinic  in  October,  1908.     She  complained  of  ner- 


THE    ACTUAL   NEUROSES  137 

vousness,  depression,  anxiety  and  insomnia  from  which  she  suffered 
for  about  two  weeks.  On  questioning  her  I  found  that  this  was  her 
sixth  attack,  that  the  first  attack  came  on  six  years  ago  and  repeated 
itself  annually,  usually  lasting  about  two  months.  Like  the  doctor 
who  saw  her  before  me  I  thought  of  manic  depressive  insanity,  but 
on  closer  examination  I  changed  my  diagnosis  to  anxiety  hysteria. 
Her  family  history  was  negative.  She  herself  claimed  that  she  was 
never  sick  before  her  present  illness.  Anthropologically  and  other- 
wise she  corresponded  to  her  type — Austrian  Jewess.  Physically 
there  was  nothing  worthy  of  note. 

When  I  asked  her  to  tell  me  her  chief  complaint  she  said  that  it  was 
a  depression  and  anxiety.  She  stated  that  her  attacks  were  not  all 
aUke.  Thus,  her  first  attack  began  very  suddenly  and  was  charac- 
terized by  marked  anxiety,  depression,  apprehension  and  insomnia. 
The  second,  third  and  fourth  attacks  were  considerably  milder,  the 
depression  being  the  main  symptom,  while  her  fifth  attack  again 
showed  the  anxiety  and  insomnia.  Her  sjonptoms  did  not  in  any 
way  incapacitate  her.  She  attended  to  her  housework  as  usual  and 
there  was  absolutely  no  psychomotor  retardation.  She  maintained, 
however,  that  she  was  afraid  that  something  would  happen  to  her  and 
that  she  often  cried  out  without  knowing  why.  There  were  no  distinct 
phobias,  but  in  all  her  attacks  she  showed  the  characteristic  folic  du 
douie.  Thus,  during  her  attacks  she  often  got  out  of  bed  "at  least  a 
dozen  times"  to  ascertain  whether  the  door  was  properly  locked  or 
whether  the  gas  was  turned  off.  Besides  the  symptoms  enumerated 
she  also  showed  the  aforecited  cardinal  symptoms  of  anxiety  neurosis. 
What  influenced  me  in  diagnosticating  anxiety  hysteria  was  the 
typical  sexual  etiology.  The  first  attack  came  two  years  after  her 
husband  left  for  the  United  States,  during  which  time  she  was  sexually 
continent.  For  the  following  three  years,  while  with  her  husband, 
she  gave  birth  to  two  children,  and  thus  her  emotional  needs  were  fully 
satisfied.  After  the  fourth  child  was  born  she  wanted  no  more 
children,  and  her  husband  practised  coitus  interruptus.  That  seemed 
to  account  for  the  difference  in  the  symptoms  of  the  various  attacks. 
For  lack  of  gratification  is  a  very  frequent  cause  of  insomnia,  par- 
ticularly in  persons  showing  nothing  else  to  account  for  it.  But,  of 
course,  we  have  accounted  for  the  depression  which  was  present 
in  every  attack. 


138  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

As  soon  as  I  decided  on  the  diagnosis  I  proceeded  with 
the  psychoanalysis.  I  usually  begin  by  asking  the  patient 
to  give  me  a  full  account  of  the  origin  of  the  disease.  She 
knew  that  the  first  attack  came  on  about  six  years  before, 
just  before  she  came  to  the  United  States.  Her  husband 
left  her  in  Austria  with  two  children  and,  after  having  been 
away  for  about  two  years,  he  sent  for  her  to  join  him  in  New 
York.  It  was  while  she  was  getting  ready  for  her  journey 
that  the  first  attack  came  on  and  continued  for  about  two 
months.  She  was  quite  certain  that  it  had  no  connection 
with  her  leaving  Austria;  on  the  contrary  she  was  more 
than  glad  to  join  her  husband.  The  subsequent  attacks 
came  on  periodically  every  fall.  She  also  recalled  that  her 
attacks  came  together  with  the  Jewish  fall  holidays. 
More  than  this  she  did  not  know.  I  attempted  an  associa- 
tion experiment,  but  either  she  refused  her  cooperation 
or  she  was  unable  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  procedure. 
As  I  attributed  her  depression  and  anxiety  to  the  repres- 
sion of  painful  or  disagreeable  reminiscences,  and  as  the 
dream  is  the  via  regia  to  the  unconscious  or  the  repression 
I  asked  her  to  tell  me  something  of  her  dreams.  She 
insisted  that  she  had  not  dreamed  for  years.  She  finally 
recalled,  however,  having  had  a  dream  before  or  at  the 
beginning  of  her  first  attack.     This  was  the  dream: 

"/  walked  on  the  street  and  a  horse  harnessed  to  a  wagon 
was  running  toward  me.  I  could  not  get  out  of  its  way;  the 
horse  was  almost  upon  me.  I  put  out  my  arm  to  push  it  away 
when  it  caught  my  hand  in  its  mouth  and  bit  me.  Screaming, 
I  awoke  terrified." 

As  the  dream  occurred  before  or  at  the  onset  of  the  at- 
tack I  assumed  that  it  had  some  relation  to  it,  as  dreams  are 


THE   ACTUAL   NEUROSES  139 

always  based  on  experiences  or  thoughts  of  the  day  pre- 
ceding the  dream.  Also,  the  fear  in  the  dream  pointed  to 
its  being  of  a  sexual  nature,  and  I  suspected  that  the  horse 
was  simply  a  sexual  symbol.® 

On  asking  the  patient  to  tell  something  about  the  horse 
she  stated  that  it  was  a  bay  horse  and  very  spirited.  That 
was  all  she  knew.  When  I  urged  her  to  tell  me  all  the 
thoughts  that  occurred  to  her  in  this  connection  she  impa- 
tiently remarked:  "I  don't  know  what  to  tell  j'ou;  I  could 
talk  about  horses  for  hours.  I  know  quite  a  bit  about 
horses,  as  I  lived  next  door  to  a  government  horse-breeding 
station."  She  then  displayed  considerable  emotivity, 
but  on  being  urged  to  tell  whatever  was  in  her  mind  she 
stated  that  she  witnessed  the  practical  details  of  horse  breed- 
ing at  a  very  early  age.  Indeed,  she  was  certain  that  this 
was  her  first  conscious  sexual  impression.  "Of  course," 
she  added,  *'I  was  too  young  to  know  the  real  meaning  of 
things.  I  imagined  that  the  horses  were  fighting."  This 
sadistic  conception  is  very  common  in  children  and  as 
Freud  shows  in  his  paper,  "Concerning  Infantile  Sexual 
Theories,"'  children  always  interpret  the  sexual  act  in  that 
sense.  There  was  a  sudden  blocking  and  when  asked  to 
continue  she  suddenly  recalled  something  which  had  no 
connection  with  horses.  The  evening  before  the  dream, 
while  sitting  in  the  room  with  some  neighbors,  some  ani- 
mal, perhaps  a  mouse  or  rat,  ran  out  of  the  brick  stove  into 
the  bed.  Unlike  her  sex  she  was  ordinarily  not  afraid  of 
mice  or  rats,  but  this  time  she  was  terribly  frightened  and 
continued  to  be  so  for  hours.  She  rummaged  through  the 
bed  and  found  nothing;  still  she  was  afraid  to  sleep  in  this 
bed.     This  recalled  that  this  attack  of  fright  occurred  a 


140  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

few  hours  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  sell  her  feather 
beds.  She  again  became  silent  and  claimed  that  her  stream 
of  thoughts  was  exhausted.  Suspecting  that  her  attack 
of  anxiety  was  the  manifestation  of  a  mental  conflict  in  a  sex- 
ual abstainer,  I  asked  her  why  she  was  so  terrified  at  the 
sight  of  what  she  imagined  was  a  mouse  or  rat,  if  she  was 
ordinarily  not  afraid  of  these  animals.  Her  ready  re- 
sponse was  that  she  was  never  afraid  of  the  real  mouse  or 
rat,  but  that  at  that  time  she  imagined  that  they  were  only 
apparitions,  that  someone  tried  to  exert  some  evil  influ- 
ence over  her  by  magic.  She  laughingly  added  that  she 
no  longer  believed  in  such  nonsense.  When  I  asked  her 
who  she  thought  tried  to  exert  an  evil  influence  over  her 
and  why  that  was  attempted,  she  at  first  refused  to  answer, 
remarking  that  the  whole  thing  was  not  worth  talking 
about,  but  after  considerable  urging  she  said  that  she  then 
believed  that  it  was  a  man  who  offered  to  buy  her  feather 
beds.  With  great  emotivity  and  hesitation  she  described 
this  man,  whom  we  will  call  X.  as  a  very  disagreeable  and 
impudent  fellow.  He  wished  to  buy  her  feather  beds,  but 
for  some  reason  she  could  not  come  to  any  terms  with  him. 
He,  however,  persisted  in  calling  on  her  until  she  became 
so  tired  of  seeing  him  that  she  hid  herself  whenever  she 
saw  him  coming.  She  suddenly  broke  off  the  narrative  and 
when  I  urged  her  to  continue  she  became  very  indignant. 
She  said  she  saw  no  reason  for  the  revival  of  all  this  foolish- 
ness; she  was  very  sure  that  this  questioning  had  nothing 
to  do  with  her  disease,  etc.,  etc.  Such  outbursts  are  very 
frequent  in  the  course  of  psychoanalysis  and  always  occur 
when  we  strike  the  main  complex.^ 

As  soon  as  I  knew  the  circumstances  of  the  case,   and 


THE    ACTUAL    NEUROSES  141 

after  hearing  the  dream,  I  thought  of  cherchez  I'homme,  and 
after  witnessing  her  emotional  outbursts  I  was  sure  that  I 
had  my  man.  As  I  said  above  the  dream  showed  a  mental 
conflict  of  a  sexual  nature  and  the  attack  of  fear,  too,  as  I 
will  show  later,  symbolically  represented  a  sexual  attack. 
Indeed  the  whole  setting  was  such  that  there  was  no  doubt 
in  my  mind  that  she  had  some  sexual  experience  with  X., 
and  that  her  periodic  attacks  of  depression  merely  repre- 
sented the  former  libido  changed  into  depression  by 
repression. 

After  calming  her  I  frankly  told  her  that  I  was  con- 
vinced that  she  was  concealing  something,  that  I  beheved 
she  had  had  some  affair  with  X.  and  that  unless  she  told 
me  everything  I  could  do  nothing  for  her.  She  emphatic- 
ally denied  my  assumptions,  but  would  not  explain  why  she 
had  to  hide  when  she  saw  X.  and  why  she  thought  he  tried 
to  exert  evil  influences  over  her.  She  became  very  indig- 
nant when  I  was  equally  assertive  in  my  statements  and 
left  me  rather  abruptly.  I  made  no  attempt  to  restrain 
her  or  remonstrate  with  her  because  my  experience  taught 
me  that  it  is  of  no  avail,  and  that  it  is  well  to  give  the 
patient  a  chance  to  fully  discharge  her  repressed  emotions. 

Two  days  later  she  returned,  but  this  time  she  looked 
quite  dejected  and  penitent.  A  few  kind  remarks  from 
me  helped  her  to  disburden  herself.  Weeping,  she  made 
the  following  confession:  ''Since  I  left  you  I  was  very 
miserable.  I  have  cried  most  of  the  time;  the  whole  thing 
came  back  to  me,  I  could  not  banish  it  from  my  mind,  so  I 
decided  to  come  and  tell  you  all."  She  then  assured  me 
that  for  the  two  years  that  she  was  separated  from  her 
husband  she  had  lived  a  virtuous  life.     She  was  hardly  ever 


142  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

bothered  by  erotic  thoughts  and  had  no  difficulty  in  sup- 
pressing them  when  they  came.  While  getting  ready  to 
join  her  husband  in  America  she  sold  her  household  effects 
and  X.  wanted  to  buy  her  feather  beds.  When  she  showed 
him  the  feather  beds  he  joked  with  her  about  her  coming 
journey  to  America  and  alluded  to  her  future  happiness 
with  her  husband.  This  aroused  some  erotic  thoughts  and 
when  X.  accompanied  his  talk  by  touching  her  suggestively 
she  was  surprised  not  to  have  resented  it.  In  brief,  she 
met  him  a  number  of  times,  always  on  the  pretense  of  sell- 
ing the  feather  beds  and  she  was  afterward  surprised  at  her 
own  weakness.  She,  however,  assured  me  that  she  had  not 
broken  her  marriage  vows.  "That  is  the  only  thing  I 
have  not  done,"  she  said.  It  was  after  she  suddenly  awoke 
to  the  gravity  of  the  situation  that  she  refused  to  see  him 
and  feared  him.  She  was  really  afraid  of  herself;  she  did 
not  trust  herself.  These  experiences  which  gave  rise  to  a 
number  of  erotic  thoughts  and  fancies  were  then  changed 
into  displeasure.  It  was  then  that  she  was  afraid  to  sleep 
alone  with  her  children  and  had  to  ask  a  neighbor  to  sleep 
with  her.  It  was  about  the  same  time  that  the  rat  incident 
occurred  which  made  her  think  of  magic.  This  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  even  after  she  stopped  seeing  X.  she 
continued  to  have  sexual  thoughts  and  fancies.  The  more 
she  tried  to  banish  them  the  more  they  came.  By  associa- 
tion of  ideas  they  recalled  to  her  all  her  sexual  experiences, 
such  as  early  masturbation,  etc.,  which  in  view  of  their  per- 
sistence against  her  own  will  she  could  attribute  only  to 
some  external  power — magic.  Of  course,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  there  was  a  time  in  her  life  when  she 
actually  believed  in  magical  influence,  and  owing  to  the 


THE    ACTUAL   NEUROSES  143 

mental  upset  the  repressed  complex  simply  came  to  the 
surface.  Similar  mechanisms  are  at  the  basis  of  hal- 
lucinations and  delusions.^ 

The  other  mechanisms  of  the  case  are  quite  simple.  As 
I  said  above  the  nature  of  the  dream  shows  that  it  deals 
with  sexual  emotions.  We  also  showed  that  the  horse 
was  intimately  connected  with  her  first  sexual  impres- 
sions. She  also  stated  that  when  she  masturbated  later 
in  life  the  horse  often  served  to  arouse  her  sexual  fancies. 
In  the  dream  when  "the  horse  was  almost  upon  her,"  i.e., 
when  she  almost  yielded  to  temptation,  her  moral  self 
gained  the  upper  hand  and  she  "put  out  her  arm  to  push 
it  away."  She,  however,  sustained  a  scar,  her  hand  was 
bitten.  That  part  of  the  dream  is  constellated  by  the 
following  facts:  She  was  actually  bitten  by  a  horse  at  the 
age  of  six;  and  her  early  observations  of  horse  breeding 
had  often  excited  her  passions  and  induced  a  repetition 
of  her  habits.  The  same  effect  had  been  produced  in  her 
by  the  visits  of  X.  The  horse  in  the  dream  may  therefore 
be  taken  in  this  sense  as  symbolizing  X.  who  recalls  her 
early  impressions  of  sexuahty.  The  dream  often  makes 
use  of  such  symboHzations.  Gross  sexuality  is  always 
under  repression,  hence  we  see  instead  its  inrooted  associa- 
tions. Horses,  bulls,  dogs,  cats  and  chickens  are  often 
sexual  symbols  in  dreams,  because  it  is  with  these  animals 
that  children  are  first  apt  to  see  the  sexual  procedures.^" 
Our  patient  conceived  sexual  relations  in  the  sadistic 
sense,  they  were  first  impressed  upon  her  in  childhood  by 
the  breeding  observations  above  referred  to.  In  brief,  her 
dream  merely  symbolizes  these  relations  as  shown  by  the 
cited  association  and  the  expression  "the  horse  was  almost 


144  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

upon  me."  The  biting,  too,  she  vividly  recalled  seeing  while 
watching  the  horses.  The  dream,  therefore,  represents  the 
hidden  fulfilment  of  her  repressed  wish,  while  the  anxiety 
is  the  libido  which  was  changed  by  the  repression. 

It  still  remains  to  explain  why  the  depressions  continued 
to  recur  annually.  The  incidents  enumerated  above  took 
place  before  the  Jewish  Day  of  Atonement,  and  it  was  on 
this  day,  which  is  the  most  solemn  day  for  the  orthodox 
Jew,  that  her  actions  appeared  to  her  in  the  most  lurid 
colors.  This  is  the  day  on  which  all  true  beUevers  are 
inscribed  in  the  "Book  of  Life"  or  "Book  of  Death." 
It  is  a  day  of  fasting  and  confession  and  she  certainly 
had  a  lot  to  confess.  She  could  not  consider  her  sins 
forgiven,  and  dreaded  some  impending  evil,  perhaps  an 
accident  at  sea.  She  came  to  the  United  States  about 
five  weeks  later.  She  was  still  in  a  state  of  depression, 
but  it  soon  wore  off.  But  every  year,  with  the  approach 
of  this  solemn  day,  the  depression  returned.  She  merely 
celebrated  the  anniversary  of  her  painful  experience. 
She  never  recalled  the  original  episode  because  it  was  of  a 
disagreeable  and  painful  nature;  the  accompanying 
emotions,  however,  came  to  the  surface  and  constituted 
the  depression.  Such  depressions  are  quite  common,  and 
are  often  mistaken  for  manic  depressive  insanity.  I 
have  seen  cases  of  similar  depression  many  times  within 
the  last  ten  years. 

After  the  analysis  was  completed  the  patient  felt  much 
relieved  and  grateful.  I  saw  her  a  week  later  and  there 
was  not  a  trace  of  her  former  depression.  She  was  cheer- 
ful and  happy,  and  expressed  her  surprise  at  the  sudden 
disappearance   of   her   symptoms.     She   attributed   it   all 


THE    ACTUAL    NEUROSES  145 

to  a  mixture  of  rhubarb  and  soda  which  I  gave  her.     She 
has  had  no  attack  of  depression  since  then. 

This  short  analysis  teaches  a  number  of  things.  First: 
There  is  a  group  of  cases  of  periodic  depression  which  do 
not  belong  to  manic  depressive  insanity.  They  are  anxiety 
hysterias  based  on  somatic  and  psychosexual  traumata. 
I  am  convinced  that  many  cases  that  I  have  seen  during 
my  hospital  service  which  were  classified  as  manic  depressive 
insanity  and  "depressions  not  sufficiently  distinguished" 
belong  to  this  category.  Second:  Freud's  psychoanalysis 
is,  in  my  opinion,  the  only  rational  therapy  for  such  cases, 
as  it  not  only  unravels  the  hidden  mechanisms,  but  also 
removes  the  somatic  sexual  traumas,  by  correcting  the 
abnormal  sexual  life.  Third:  Not  all  vague  depressions, 
even  those  that  are  not  typical  of  the  manic-depressive 
group,  can  be  influenced  by  psychoanalysis.  There  are 
undoubtedly  many  other  forms  of  depression  which  have  a 
different  genesis. 

References 

1.  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria  and  Other  Psychoneuroses 
p.  149. 

2.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  134. 

3.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  141. 

4.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  148. 

5.  Stekel:  Nervose  Angstzustande  und  deren  Behandlungen,  Urban, 
&  Schwarzenberg,  Wien,  1908. 

6.  Freud :  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams. 

7.  Freud:  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  Zweite 
Folge,  p.  159.     Deuticke,  Wein,  1909. 

8.  Jung:  The  Association  Method.  Translated  by  A.  A.  Brill, 
American  Journal  of  Psychology,  April,  1909.     Cf.  also  Chap.  VIII. 

9.  Jung:  The  Psychology  of  Dementia  Prsecox.  Translated  by 
Peterson  and  BriU,  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Dis.  Pub.  Co. 

10.  Ihid.,  p.  141. 
10 


CHAPTER  V 

MASTURBATION 

Its  Relation  to  the  Neurosis  and  Psychosis 

One  of  the  sexual  manifestations  which  one  invariably 
encounters  in  examining  the  patient's  vita  sexualis,  is 
masturbation.  When  you  talk  to  the  patient  he  will 
invariably  leave  that  out,  but  will  readily  admit  that  he  has 
"abused"  himself,  or  that  he  is  still  doing  so.  He  will 
then  describe  in  halting  terms  and  with  a  great  deal  of 
emotivity,  how  he  struggles  against  this  vice,  how  he 
stopped  it  on  a  number  of  occasions  because  he  read  certain 
pamphlets  and  heard  certain  lectures  on  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  it,  but  that  he  resorted  to  it  again  because 
he  has  a  weak  will-power,  that  he  is  sure  that  in  time  he  will 
be  driven  into  insanity.  Such  patients  usually  present  a 
very  sorry  plight:  they  are  depressed,  morose,  and  very 
often  give  the  impression  of  great  suffering.  If  such  a 
patient  appHes  to  the  average  physician  or  to  a  sympathetic 
layman,  he  will  always  be  told  that  he  must  "stop  it  at 
once,"  otherwise  something  terrible  will  befall  him. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  masturbation  has  been  the  bete  noire 
of  the  sexual  problems.  No  other  phenomenon  has 
received  as  much  space  and  consideration,  no  other  phe- 
nomenon has  been  so  confusingly  represented  or  mis- 
represented as  this  subject.     Volumes  have  been  written 

about  it.     For  centuries  it  has  been  a  favorite  discussion 

146 


HASTUKBATION  147 

among  physicians  and  theologians,  and,  like  the  sword 
of  Damocles,  it  has  been  hanging  over  the  heads  of  almost 
every  civilized  being.  Nor  is  the  question  settled  today. 
One  continually  hears  new  expressions  of  opinion  con- 
cerning its  causes  and  effects;  and  notwithstanding  the 
views  of  the  most  prominent  sexologists  of  the  day  to  the 
contrary,  most  laymen  and  physicians  still  hold  mas- 
turbation responsible  for  nearly  all  ailments  that  the  flesh 
or  the  mind  may  fall  heir  to.  This  is  particularly  observed 
in  reference  to  cases  of  nervous  and  mental  disturbances, 
few  of  which  are  to  be  found  free  from  masturbation  con- 
flicts. For  even  if  the  patient  himself  does  not  think  of  it, 
his  relatives  or  physicians  are  sure  to  discover  it,  and  to 
explain  thereby  the  diseased  process.  Indeed,  perhaps 
the  most  noteworthy  peculiarity  about  the  subject  of 
masturbation,  is  the  fact  that  notwithstanding  the  works 
of  such  eminent  sexologists  as  Havelock  Ellis,  Bloch, 
Rohleder,  Moll,  and  others,  as  well  as  the  positive  assertions 
of  the  most  prominent  psychiatrists,  the  laity,  as  well  as 
most  physicians,  still  adhere  to  the  old  medieval  idea 
concerning  it.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  consider  it  well 
worth  the  effort  to  review  the  opinions  of  some  of  those 
authors  and  to  add  what  my  own  psychoanalytic  experience 
has  taught  me  about  it. 

When  one  examines  the  sexual  life  of  any  person,  one 
finds  that  at  some  period  of  his  life  every  individual  resorts 
to  autoerotic  sexual  outlets  in  the  form  of  masturbation. 
All  authors  agree  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  boys 
masturbate  at  some  period  of  their  lives,  and  some  hold 
the  same  to  be  true  of  girls.  Thus  Havelock  Ellis  and 
Moll  define  masturbation  in  the  narrow  sense  as  a  process 


148  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

by  which  the  hands  are  used  to  excite  one's  self  sexually; 
and  in  the  broader  sense  they  apply  it  to  all  cases  wherein 
friction  is  used  by  the  individual  on  himself  for  sexual 
purposes.  Concerning  the  universaUty  they  say:  "Mas- 
turbation in  the  broader  sense  is  an  almost  universal  mani- 
festation in  animals  and  all  human  beings  of  all  lands. 
It  is  so  widespread  that,  strictly  speaking,  we  cannot  call  it 
abnormal."^  These  statements  express  the  opinions  of 
most  sexologists.  The  statistics  given  by  authors  are 
usually  very  high.  They  all  agree  that  the  great  majority 
of  boys  masturbate;  some  maintain  that  it  is  almost  as  high  / 
as  100  per  cent,  others  give  lower  figures.  My  own  findings  . 
agree  with  the  former.  I  found  few  men  who  have  not  ^ 
masturbated,  although  I  cannot  maintain  the  same  per- 
centage for  women.  According  to  Moll  and  others,  one 
occasional^  meets  some  healthy  sexually  normal  men  who 
claim  not  to  have  masturbated.  Other  authors,  however, 
maintain  that  such  persons  are,  as  a  rule,  of  a  weak  sexual 
constitution  in  the  first  place.  Out  of  many  hundreds  of 
cases  I  found  few  men  who  seemingly  never  masturbated, 
and  these  all  evinced  an  abnormally  weak  sexual  make-up. 
Thus  one  of  these  men,  a  professional  man  of  thirty-eight 
years,  assured  me  that  he  never  masturbated  and  rarely 
experienced  any  feelings  of  sex.  As  far  as  I  could  discover 
in  one  interview  he  was  practically  a-sexual  in  his  emotions. 
He  consulted  many  physicians  about  the  advisability  of 
marrying,  as  he  himself  had  no  real  urge  to  do  so.  The 
others  were  of  the  same  type.  Moreover,  it  is  not  always 
proper  to  judge  by  mere  answers.  Many  deny  mas- 
turbation because  of  shame  or  fear,  while  still  others  do 
not   know   that   they   have   been  masturbating.     This  is 


MASTURBATION  149 

especially  true  of  women  who  masturbate  through  friction 
of  the  thighs  or  erotic  fancies.  ^  In  analyzing  persons  it  is 
not  rare  to  find  some  deny  masturbation  for  months,  only  to 
admit  it  later.  One  of  my  patients  admitted  having  mastur- 
bated for  years  after  she  had  denied  it  for  over  six  months. 

Many  observers  maintain  that  girls  masturbate  less 
frequently  than  boys,  while  others  state  that  it  is  just  as 
common  or  even  more  common  among  girls.  Guttceit, 
basing  his  statement  on  a  thirty  years'  experience,  assumed 
that  almost  all  girls  masturbate  who  attain  the  age  of  eighteen 
or  twenty  without  any  opportunity  for  sexual  intercourse. 
Rohleder  asserts  that  after  puberty  girls  masturbate  more 
frequently  than  boys.  Among  one  hundred  women,  he 
found  ninety-five  masturbators. 

Concerning  its  causes,  all  authors  agree  that  any  external 
irritation  of  the  genitals,  such  as  pin  worms  or  tight  clothes, 
may  bring  about  masturbation  in  children.  Servants 
often  initiate  it  in  their  charges  at  a  very  early  age.  Some 
are  taught  to  masturbate  by  other  usually  older  boys, 
while  over  50  per  cent  of  my  cases  started  it  without  any 
outside  interference,  after  such  innocent  activities  as 
climbing  up  or  sliding  down  a  pole,  leaning  against  a  chair, 
cleansing  the  parts,  etc.  Some  boys  and  girls  began  to 
masturbate  while  reading.  Such  reading  was  not  neces- 
sarily of  an  erotic  nature;  many  boys  were  stimulated  to 
masturbation  by  reading  about  brutal  acts  such  as  are 
depicted  in  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  and  girls  often  resorted  to 
masturbation  after  reading  masochistic  or  sadistic  scenes. 
Judging  by  the  many  peculiar  causes  of  a  physical  and 
psychic  nature  given  by  the  patients  themselves  it  would 
seem  that  there  is  no  way  of  guarding  against  it. 


150  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

It  is  also  well  known  that  there  is  an  infantile  masturba- 
tion, which  some  claim  is  almost  universal,  while  others 
maintain  that  it  is  only  common.  Be  that  as  it  may,  there 
comes  a  time  in  the  life  of  every  individual  when  the  sexual 
feehngs  become  manifest,  and  as  he  is  not  able  to  gratify 
them,  he  usually  resorts  to  some  form  of  masturbation. 

As  I  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  dilate  further  on  the 
frequency,  varieties,  and  causes  of  masturbation,  all  of 
which  are  fully  discussed  in  the  works  of  the  authors  men- 
tioned above,  I  shall  continue  with  the  discussion  of  the 
dangers  of  masturbation.  Almost  every  layman  and  nearly 
all  doctors  beheve  that  masturbation  is  very  dangerous  to 
mind  and  body.  These  ideas  are  kept  alive  and  dissemi- 
nated by  quacks  who,  in  order  to  enrich  themselves, 
threaten  the  masturbators  with  all  sorts  of  terrible  punish- 
ments. Everything  is  explained  by  masturbation — palpita- 
tion, indigestion,  aches  and  pains,  leucorrhea  in  women, 
and  every  form  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases  in  both 
sexes.  Pamphlets  are  distributed,  lectures  are  given  which 
describe  the  horrible  results  of  masturbation,  and  many 
cities  still  boast  of  museums  "For  Men  Only"  where  the 
horrors  of  masturbation  are  vividly  depicted  in  writings 
and  in  wax  figures.  It  is  sad  to  state  that  most  doctors 
entertain  similar  ideas.  Hardly  a  month  passes  during  , 
which  I  do  not  see  at  least  one  patient  whose  neurotic  or  v 
mental  affliction  is  not  attributed  by  the  family  physician 
to  masturbation.  These  ideas  have  been  held  for  centuries, 
and,  although  Griesinger  began  to  dispute  them  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  they  are  still  flourishing.  Grie- 
singer maintained  that  it  was  not  masturbation  that  did  / 
harm,  but  the  inner  conflict  that  accompanied  it.     He  said 


MASTURBATION  151 

that  it  was  the  shame,  the  reproach,  the  self -depreciation, 
the  breaking  of  good  resolutions  which  caused  nervousness. 
He  also  destroyed  the  old  cherished  idea  that  a  masturbator 
can  be  recognized  by  this  physiognomic  expression,  such 
as  rings  under  the  eyes,  etc.  Griesinger's  ideas  were 
taken  up  by  many  investigators  who,  after  careful  study, 
came  to  the  same  conclusions,  and  today  all  observers  agree 
^  that  the  dangers  of  masturbation  have  been  greatly  exag- 
gerated. Thus  Bloch^  states,  "Today  all  experienced 
physicians  occupying  themselves  with  the  subject  of 
onanism  and  its  consequences  are  of  the  opinion  that 
moderate  masturbation  in  healthy  people  does  no  harm." 
Moll  expresses  himself  in  a  similar  manner.  "It  is  more 
than  doubtful,"  he  says,  "whether,  as  far  as  adults  are 
concerned,  occasional  masturbation  is  necessarily  more 
harmful  than  normal  sexual  intercourse."  Similar  views 
are  held  by  Kiernan,  Ellis,  and  others.  Most  of  them 
agree,  however,  that  excesses  may  do  some  harm,  but  no  one 
has  ever  established  what  is  meant  by  masturbatic  excesses. 
Some  authors,  notably  Stekel"*,  maintain  that  the  neuras- 
thenic symptoms  one  finds  in  masturbators  are  always  of 
psychogenetic  origin,  and  are  the  result  of  feeUngs  of  guilt 
and  fear.  This  idea  is  not  shared  by  Freud  and  other 
psychoanalysts,  who  believe  that  as  masturbation  is  not 
an  adequate  sexual  outlet,  it  may  contribute  to  the  forma- 
f  tion  of  the  actual  neuroses.  Personal  experience  with  a 
f|  /  great  many  cases  leads  me  to  the  conviction  that  mas- 
I  turbation  does  not  in  any  way  injure  the  brain  or  cord,  and 
has  no  direct  pernicious  influence  on  physical  health.  To 
be  sure,  many  cases  came  to  me  with  rather  severe  nervous 
symptoms   of  the    "anxiety  neurosis"   type   which   were 


152  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

attributed  to  masturbation  by  the  patients  themselves. 
But  examination  invariably  showed  that  the  symptoms 
were  mainly  due  to  psychic  conflicts  and  often  to  a  sudden 
stoppage  of  masturbation  after  a  prolonged  practice.  I 
could  always  definitely  demonstrate  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  patient  that  so  long  as  he  had  no  conflicts  he  was  not 
affected  by  his  masturbation;  but  as  soon  as  he  became  ]  / 
aware  of  the  harmfulness  of  it  through  friends,  books  or 
lectures,  and  began  to  struggle  against  it,  the  symptoms 
soon  appeared.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  typical  cases 
that  came  to  my  attention  was  the  following:  About  six 
years  ago  I  was  asked  to  see  a  young  student  of  twenty-one 
years  who  was  said  to  be  insane.  The  history  as  given  to 
me  by  the  physician  and  the  patient's  mother  stated  that 
the  patient  was  well  till  about  ten  days  before,  when  he 
suddenly  became  nervous  and  depressed.  He  was  con- 
stantly afraid  of  insanity;  he  was  very  restless  and  agitated, 
paced  the  room,  cried  much,  slept  little,  and  hardly  took 
any  food.  The  patient  made  the  impression  of  an  agitated 
depression,  but  the  picture  was  so  varied  that  I  was  at  first 
uncertain  as  to  the  diagnosis.  I  soon  found,  however,  that 
the  symptoms  as  he  enumerated  them  and  his  attitude  and 
manner  did  not  fit  into  any  of  the  psychoses  that  I  had  in 
mind,  but  they  readily  corresponded  to  the  horrifying 
description  of  the  results  of  masturbation  as  given  in  quack 
literature.  On  being  questioned  he  stated  that  he  began  to 
masturbate  at  the  age  of  eleven,  and  continued  on  an 
average  of  four  or  five  times  a  week  until  about  two  weeks 
before  I  saw  him.  At  that  time  he  suddenly  discovered, 
through  a  friend  who  loaned  him  a  book  on  the  subject, 
that  masturbation  drives  one  crazy,  etc.,  and  soon  there- 


MASTURBATION  153 

after  he  began  to  fear  insanity,  and  felt  all  the  symptoms 
enumerated  in  the  book.  Up  to  the  time  of  this  distm-bance 
he  was  a  bright  student,  and  stood  high  in  his  classes  and 
was  absolutely  well.  After  a  few  conversations,  when  I 
convinced  him  that  masturbation  cannot  cause  insanity, 
and  showed  him  how  he  reproduced  every  symptom  given 
in  the  quack  book,  he  soon  became  himself.  A  siniilar  case 
was  that  of  a  young  woman  of  21  years  who  suddenly 
became  listless  and  irritable.  She  suffered  from  in- 
somnia, lack  of  appetite,  and  was  very  hysterical  besides. 
Questioning  soon  revealed  that  she  had  been  masturbating 
since  the  age  of  fourteen  about  two,  three  times  weekly. 
The  masturbation  was  always  evoked  by  erotic  fancies. 
She  became  ill  following  a  "Talk  to  Girls"  in  which  the 
horrors  of  self-abuse  were  portrayed  by  an  elderly  spinster. 
All  of  her  acute  symptoms  disappeared  as  soon  as  the  true 
facts  were  revealed  to  her. 

That  masturbation  does  not  interfere  with  physical 
health  is  well  demonstrated  when  one  examines  masturbat- 
ing children.  E.  Neter^  reported  twenty-six  masturbating 
children — eighteen  girls  and  eight  boys — all  of  whom  were 
not  above  the  age  of  six  years;  he  found  that  neuropathic 
tendencies  or  heredity  played  no  essential  part,  and  that 
the  children  themselves  were  in  good  physical  condition. 
Their  psychological  behavior,  however,  showed  much 
resemblance  to  the  adult  masturbator.  Similar  views  were 
reported  by  Friedjung,  and  by  C.  W.  Townsend,  who 
reported  the  case  of  a  masturbating  infant  eight  months 
old.  He  says,  "The  child  was  quite  healthy."^  MolF 
instituted  inquiries  about  patients  whom  he  saw  as  children 
because  of  masturbation ;  and  after  ten,  fifteen,  and  twenty 


154  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

years  he  has  been  "astonished  to  learn  how  well  boys,  who 
from  the  age  of  eight,  nine  or  ten  had  masturbated  for 
several  years,  had  developed  as  youths  and  full-grown  men." 
I  have  had  similar  experiences  in  the  case  of  girls.  Of  the 
many  cases  of  masturbation  that  were  reported  to  me  by 
parents  about  their  children,  none  showed  any  physical 
disturbance  that  I  could  discover  which  could  in  any  way 
be  attributed  to  the  masturbation.  On  the  other  hand, 
as  soon  as  the  parents  or  servants  made  them  conscious  of 
committing  a  crime,  they  reacted  to  it  almost  like  adults. 
Like  Moll  I  have  kept  myself  informed  about  boys  and  girls 
who  were  seen  by  me  because  of  masturbation  over  ten 
years  ago.  Every  one  of  them  has  developed  into  a  healthy 
individual  although  some  of  them  masturbated  for  years 
on  and  off  without  conflicts. 

Without  citing  more  cases  or  authorities,  I  will  repeat  that 
I  agree  with  those  who  hold  that  masturbation  does  not 
exert  any  harmful  influence  on  the  physical  health  of 
normal  persons.  Those  dangers  of  masturbation  which 
are  mentioned  by  some  authors — to  wit,  that  it  might 
become  a  fixed  habit  or  lead  to  excesses — I  have  found  only 
in  some  psychopathic  types.  The  average  individual  always 
passes  over  from  the  autoerotic  stage  to  the  love  object, 
and  then  only  rarely  resorts  to  masturbation  Jaut  de  mieux. 

However,  to  say  that  masturbation  does  no  physical 
harm  does  not  in  any  way  imply  that  one  may  masturbate 
with  impunity.  While  I  do  not  consider  masturbation  an 
unnatural  vice,  but  a  natural  manifestation  of  an  impulse, 
I  believe  with  Von  Hug-Hellmuth  that  it  should  be  con- 
trolled, especially  if  prematurely  developed  or  frequently 
indulged  in,  otherwise  it  has  a  deleterious  influence  on  the 


MASTURBATION  155 

emotional  or  psychic  characteristics  of  the  individual.^ 
A  child  who  masturbates  much  during  the  latency  period 
(between  4  and  9),  especially  under  conflicts,  may  injure  his 
capacity  to  sublimate  on  higher  aims,  such  as  education.* 
Also  in  adult  life  the  conflict  ensues  sooner  or  later,  and 
the  person  then  develops  definite  characteristics.  Accord- 
ing to  Sadger,  chronic  masturbators  are  socially  timid, 
unkindly  disposed,  scrupulously  truthful  and  devout; 
they  show  a  tendency  towards  secretiveness,  and  entertain 
ideas  of  observation  and  persecution.^"  Such  character- 
istics, while  not  observed  in  many  masturbators,  do  not  tend 
toward  personal  happiness. 

Whether  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  masturbation  does  not 
gratify  the  mastery  impulse  (Bemachtigungstrieb)  as 
asserted  by  Federn,  Reitler,  Sachs,  and  others,  and  thus 
inhibits  its  development,  chronic  masturbators  are  not 
good  mixers — they  lack  that  active  aggression  which  every 
male  animal  must  possess  to  fit  him  for  the  competitions 
and  struggles  of  life,  especially  in  relation  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  species.  I  know  a  number  of  such  individuals, 
some  of  whom  are  quite  successful  in  their  various  endeavors, 
who  are  very  backward  in  their  love  life.  They  are  usually 
too  lazy  to  enter  into  competition  of  the  love  game,  and 
prefer  to  remain  old  bachelors.  It  must,  however,  be 
remembered  that  such  individuals  are  usually  of  a  psycho- 
pathic make-up. 

There  are  many  other  psychological  factors  connected 
with  masturbation — such  as  its  relation  to  the  formation  of 
the  psychoneuroses,  its  larval  forms,  as  well  as  its  association 
with  hysterical  fancies  and  dreamy  states^^  which  need  not 
be  discussed  here. 


156  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said,  one  can  easily  surmise 
what  attitude  to  assume  when  confronted  with  masturba- 
tion in  children.  We  have  mentioned  above  that,  hke 
any  other  form  of  development,  masturbation  should  be 
controlled  but  in  exercising  it,  the  utmost  care  must  be 
taken.  Above  all,  we  cannot  over-emphasize  the  fact 
that  the  old  pohcy  of  threatening  and  punishing  never 
cures — it  usually  deviates  the  impulse  to  some  other 
abnormal  path — and  does  an  untold  amount  of  harm.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  parents  and  physicians  know  so  little 
of  the  great  harm  that  comes  to  masturbating  children  as 
a  result  of  threats  and  punishment.  Only  the  physician 
who  later  analyzes  these  patients  discovers  the  enormous 
injury  that  they  sustained  in  childhood.  Of  the  many 
cases  who  gave  me  a  history  of  having  been  punished  and 
threatened  by  parents  or  guardians,  very  few  really  gave 
up  the  practice.  They  continued  to  indulge  in  it  secretly 
under  severe  anxiety  and  self-torture,  an  indulgence  which 
was  bound  to  leave  its  traces  on  their  whole  character. 
The  struggles,  the  depressions,  and  the  reproaches  that 
such  children  go  through  beggar  all  description.  Besides 
these  conscious  pangs,  they  develop  later  many  strange 
psychoneurotic  symptoms  which  may  constrain  or  in- 
capacitate them  for  the  rest  of  their  existence.  To  illus- 
trate some  of  these  influences  I  will  cite  the  following  case : 
A  married  man  was  left  by  his  wife  a  few  weeks  after  their  wed- 
ding. Her  parents  took  her  home,  and  were  ready  to  bring 
about  a  legal  separation  because  the  young  husband  could 
not  consummate  the  marriage  contract.  Psychoanalysis 
showed  that  he  suffered  from  a  "castration  complex"  as  a 
result  of  having  been  threatened  by  his  father  at  a  very 


MASTURBATION  157 

early  age  (between  3  and  5) .  He  recalled  that  at  that  age 
his  father  detected  him  playing  with  his  genital,  and  threat-  ^  , 
ened  to  'cut  it  off"  if  he  should  ever  do  it  again.  The 
little  boy  was  terribly  frightened  and  cried  for  many  hours. 
This  feeling  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  shortly  before 
he  cut  his  finger  and  bled  considerably.  For  weeks  he  was 
in  mortal  dread  lest  his  father  should  make  good  his  threat. 
As  he  grew  older  he  forgot  all  about  this  incident,  but  he 
became  very  sensitive  about  this  part  of  his  body.  He  was 
unable  to  use  a  public  urinal  for  fear  that  some  one  might  see 
him.  No  one  was  allowed  to  come  into  his  bed-room  while 
he  was  asleep  or  undressed — all  these  fears  referred  to  his 
unconscious  fear  of  having  it  "cut  off."  When  he  married, 
it  was  totally  impossible  for  him  to  react  normally  toward 
his  wife.  He  was  psychosexually  impotent.  That  some 
physicians  should  still  instruct  parents  to  whip  masturbat- 
ing children  and  resort  to  all  sorts  of  stupid  and  barbarous 
methods,  such  as,  tying  the  hands  encased  in  aluminum 
gloves,  tying  the  child  to  an  orthopedic  board  every  night  /  j 
for  many  months,  cliterdectomies  and  blistering  of  the 
genitals  etc., — that  doctors  should  still  be  so  ignorant  is 
very  sad  indeed. 

The  symptoms  that  the  "castration  complex"  may  give 
origin  to  are  naturally  manifold.  Hug-Hellmuth^^  holds 
it  responsible  for  the  fear  evinced  by  some  children  of 
having  their  hair  cut,  the  touching  mania  (D^lire  de 
toucher),  which  is  conceived  as  a  continual  conflict  between 
the  pleasure  to  touch  the  genital  and  the  prohibition  not 
to  do  it,  is  also  attributed  to  it.  I  found  this  complex 
under  the  guise  of  anxiety,  hysteria,  compulsive  ideas,  and 
paranoid  manifestations.     Psychoanalj'^sis  furnishes  abund- 


158  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

ant  material  showing  that  fear  and  punishment  rarely  stop 
the  practice  and  always  harm.  If  a  child  is  found  mastur- 
bating frequently,  and  external  irritation  can  be  excluded, 
one  should  examine  the  psychic  milieu  of  the  child.  I 
find  that  children  who  are  leading  a  healthful  life,  who  are 
associating  with  other  children,  and  take  an  active  interest 
in  child  life  during  the  day,  rarely  masturbate.  Those  who 
came  to  my  notice  usually  belonged  to  that  class  who  lack 
a  normal  environment;  some  of  them  were  only  children 
who  on  the  one  hand,  were  excessively  stimulated  through 
kissing,  hugging  and  sleeping  with  adults  and  on  the  other 
hand,  were  left  to  themselves  most  of  the  day;  others  were 
altogether  neglected  and  had  no  outlet  through  playing  with 
children.  A  change  in  the  child's  environment  often  stops 
the  masturbation.  Parents  should  not  become  alarmed 
when  they  notice  masturbation  in  children.  They  should 
quietly  inquire  into  the  causes  thereof  and  remove  them. 
The  greatest  care  must  be  taken  not  to  make  the  child 
self-conscious  about  its  masturbation;  and  to  avoid  this,  it 
is  best  not  to  take  it  to  those  doctors  who  are  themselves 
in  need  of  instruction.  By  approaching  the  subject  with 
care,  delicacy,  and  in  a  spirit  of  kindness,  the  parents  can 
usually  cause  the  child  to  give  up  the  practice  altogether 
or  to  diminish  its  frequency. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  masturbation  is  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  evolution  of  modern  sex  development.  In  both 
children  and  adults  it  merely  connotes  that  the  individual 
is  getting  much,  or  some,  of  his  sexual  outlet  in  an  auto- 
erotic  manner.  In  the  child  it  is  a  manifestation  of  the 
budding  sexuality  and  should  be  treated  as  such.  It 
hardly  means  anything  during  the  autoerotic  period  but 


/ 


MASTURBATION  "  159 

one  should  make  an  effort  to  help  the  individual  to  get  over 
the  autoerotic  period  and  develop  the  need  for  natural 
object  love.  Autoerotism  in  any  form  is  not  conducive 
to  happiness  when  practiced  by  any  adult.  Children  who 
show  tendencies  to  linger  at  this  period,  of  which  masturba- 
tion is  only  one  sign,  should  be  made  to  associate  with  other 
children.  Many  early  masturbations  have  ceased  soon 
after  the  child  was  sent  to  a  kindergarten  or  playground 
where  they  learned  to  give  and  take  emotions.  Some  years 
ago  I  was  consulted  about  a  little  girl  of  about  three  years 
who  masturbated  quite  frequently.  The  parents  were 
cultured  persons  who  were  forced  to  live  in  a  very  small 
community  among  people  much  below  their  own  class  and 
consequently  they  hardly  associated  with  their  neighbors. 
The  only  emotional  relationship  that  the  child  had  was 
with  its  parents  and  an  elderly  woman  nurse.  At  my 
suggestions  the  mother  formed  a  sort  of  kindergarten  with 
some  children  of  the  neighborhood  which  not  only  resulted 
in  her  child  giving  up  the  habit  but  it  also  produced  an 
excellent  change  in  her  whole  behavior.  A  boy  of  four 
years  was  supposed  to  masturbate  very  frequently,  he  was 
in  addition  very  timid  and  secretive  in  his  habits.  This  boy 
has  been  jealously  guarded  by  his  neurotic  mother  from 
coming  in  contact  with  other  children.  He  was  therefore 
mentally  and  emotionally  precocious  but  altogether  in- 
capable of  associating  with  others.  Here  the  frequent 
masturbation  was  a  manifestation  of  his  inadequate  emo- 
tional outlet,  and  of  a  schizophrenic  heredity.  The  treat- 
ment was  altogether  directed  towards  his  emotional  adjust- 
ment. His  sexual  life  was  properly  directed  by  his  parents 
who  were  themselves  subjected  to  analysis;  he  gradually 


160  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

became  accustomed  to  animals  and  children  and  now  at 
the  age  of  fourteen  he  is  a  healthy  pubescent  boy. 

I  could  cite  a  great  number  of  similar  cases  who  if  they 
did  not  altogether  give  up  masturbation  have  resorted  to 
it  only  once  in  a  while  without  any  deleterious  effects. 
The  object  of  the  treatment  should  be  to  direct  the  patient 
towards  sublimation  and  normal  object  love. 

The  situation  is  about  the  same  in  adults  who  tell  you 
that  they  began  to  masturbate  at  a  certain  age,  mostly 
from  the  age  of  twelve  to  fifteen.  The  same  procedure 
must  be  followed  here,  but  one  must  remember  that  the 
adult  sexuality  differs  from  the  infantile  sex  manifestations. 
In  most  cases  the  masturbation  is  here  only  one  symptom 
of  a  psychoneurosis  or  a  psychosis,  and  our  attention  must 
therefore  be  directed  to  the  basic  condition.  There  are, 
however,  many  young  people  who  are  apparently  well  but 
struggle  with  masturbation,  or  one  might  say  that  they 
act  in  a  perfectly  normal  manner  as  soon  as  they  are  con- 
vinced that  masturbation  cannot  cause  any  insanity  or  the 
other  dreadful  maladies.  Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that 
robbing  masturbation  of  its  horrors  encourages  its  practice. 
For  it  makes  no  difference  whether  one  occupies  himself 
with  sex  in  a  positive  or  negative  way  the  result  is  the  same, 
it  is  stimulated  to  greater  activity.  As  soon  as  the  patients 
become  enlightened  the  practice  gradually  decreases,  and 
as  the  patient  has  no  need  for  constantly  occupying 
himself  with  sexual  ideas  there  is  less  tension  to  be 
removed. 

There  is  a  class  of  masturbators,  however,  who  may  be 
designated  as  chronic  because  they  continue  the  practice 
throughout  their  whole  life.     They  usually  belong  to  the 


MASTURBATION  161 

psychopathic  class  and  the  masturbation  must  be  considered 
as  a  result  rather  than  a  cause  of  the  condition. 

One  might  ask  why  masturbation  was  always  considered 
wrong  and  why  it  was  associated  with  insanity.  Anything 
that  is  not  done  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of  nature 
is  conceived  by  the  individual  as  wrong  or  as  inadequate. 
This  feehng  is  probably  organically  determined;  a  certain 
impulse  requires  a  certain  mode  of  rehef  for  its  tension, 
and  unless  that  is  brought  about  some  of  the  tension  is  left 
in  suspense,  as  it  were.  Such  feeling  of  incompleteness  is 
then  readily  conceived  as  wrong  and  depending  on  the 
times  and  the  individual  it  is  either  a  reHgious  or  a  hygienic 
wrong.  Formerly  it  was  considered  a  sin  and  among  religi- 
ous people  it  is  still  so  considered.  Now  when  many  are  no 
longer  so  reHgious  as  to  believe  that  heaven  will  punish 
them  for  it,  medical  science  takes  the  place  of  theology  and 
masturbation  is  then  made  responsible  for  physical  and 
mental  ailments. 

Its  connection  with  insanity  is  in  all  probabilities  due  to 

the  fact  that  whereas  the  causes  of  physical  diseases  have 

been  long  known  the  science  of  mental  diseases  is  still 

young.     It    was    therefore    easier    to  make  masturbation 

responsible  for  nervous  and  mental   diseases  concerning 

whose  natures  and  origins  one  knew  little,  then  let  us  say, 

for  pneumonia  or  indigestion.     It  was  thus  very  simple  to 

say  that  neurasthenia  and  hysteria  were  the  results  of 

masturbation   because   no   one   knew  anything  about  the 

genesis  of  these  diseases,  and  because  such  patients  usually 

masturbated.     Moreover,     the    so-called     "masturbation 

insanity"  described  by  some  psychiatrists  of  the  old  schools 

was    mostly    dementia  prsecox.     Here  the  emotional  de- 
11 


162  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

terioration  characteristic  of  the  disease  allows  the  patient 
to  masturbate  shamelessly  whenever  the  impulse  moves  him 
to  it.  Long  before  the  disease  is  recognized  by  the  relatives 
the  patient  is  seen  "abusing  himself"  and  when  he  is  later 
recognized  as  insane,  the  relatives  and  often  also  the  family 
physician  attribute  the  disease  to  masturbation  whereas 
in  reality  it  is  only  an  effect  of  dementia  praecox. 

References 

1.  Handbuch  der  Sexual  wissenschaften,  p.  617. 

2.  Cf.  Chapter  XII. 

3.  Das  Sexualleben  unserer  Zeit,  p.  471. 

4.  Uber  Onanie,  Sexual  probleme,  LX.  Aug.,  1913. 

5.  Die  Masturbation  im  vorschulpflichten.     Alter  Arch.  f.  Kinder- 
heilkunde.     Vol.  LX-LXI.,  p.  497. 

6.  "Thigh    Friction   in    Children    Under   One    Year,"    American 
Pediatric  Soc,  Montreal,  1896. 

7.  Sexual  Life  of  the  Child,  p.  186. 

8.  Hug-Hellmuth:  Aus  dem  Seelenleben  des  Kindes. 

9.  Cf.  Freud:  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  p.  38, 
Translated  by  A.  A.  Brill. 

10.  Jahrbuch  fiir  Psychoanalyses,  Bd.  LV. 

11.  Cf.  Chapters  VII  and  XII. 

12.  Axis  dem  Seelenleben  des  Kindes. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE      COMPULSION      NEUROSES      (OBSESSIONS, 
DOUBTS,  PHOBIAS) 

Their    Relation    to    the    Sadistic    Component    and    the 
Psychology  of  Love  and  Hatred 

During  the  spring  of  1909,  the  patient  R.,  twenty-three 
years  old,  born  in  New  York  City,  of  Hebrew  parentage, 
married,  driver  by  occupation,  applied  for  treatment  in 
the  neurological  department  of  the  Vanderbilt  clinic.  He 
was  examined  by  Dr.  C.  Beling,  who,  after  discussing  the 
case  with  me,  made  the  diagnosis  "compulsion  neurosis, 
probably  paranoid,"  and  referred  the  patient  to  the  depart- 
ment of  psychiatry  to  be  treated  by  me. 

R.  was  in  excellent  physical  condition.  There '  was 
nothing  to  attract  one's  attention  to  him  anthropologic- 
ally; his  features  were  well  formed  and  symmetrical, 
mentally  he  was  alert  and  intelligent,  answering  questions 
readily  and  relevantly  and  his  judgment  and  reasoning 
corresponded  to  his  type — a  bright,  thoroughly  American- 
ized young  man  of  Russian-Jewish  extraction. 

According  to  the  patient  there  was  nothing  to  note  about 

his  family  history.     He  was  the  only  child  and  as  far  as 

he  could  judge  there  were  no  mental  or  nervous  diseases 

in  the  family.     His  own   life   was   not   marked   by  any 

special  events.     He  attended  the  public  school  up  to  the 

age  of  fourteen  years  and   was  a  good  student.     After 

163 


164  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

leaving  school  he  worked  and  then  peddled,  first  with  his 
father  and  then  alone  in  the  neighboring  farming  districts. 
His  present  position  he  had  obtained  two  years  before.  I 
will  add  here  that  upon  entering  somewhat  deeper  into 
my  patient's  symptom-complex  I  soon  became  convinced 
that  I  dealt  with  a  case  of  compulsion  neurosis  and  that 
there  was  nothing  paranoid  in  it. 

By  compulsion  neurosis  in  the  Freudian  sense  we  under- 
stand those  cases  which  present  obsessions,  doubts  and 
phobias  and  which  are  commonly  called  psychoasthenias. 

The  patient  sought  treatment  because  for  four  years  he 
had  been  annoyed  by  the  thought  that  all  the  Jews  would 
be  killed  by  the  Christians.  To  use  his  own  words:  "I 
have  the  idea  that  all  Jews  will  be  killed  by  Christians.  I 
know  the  idea  is  foolish,  but  I  cannot  shake  it  off.  •  It  is 
always  with  me  and  at  times  is  so  strong  that  I  almost 
believe  it.  I  think  that  I  will  be  killed  because  all  Jews 
will  be  killed.  I  argue  with  myself  about  the  impossibility 
of  this  idea,  but  I  always  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
although  it  is  absurd  it  might  happen  and  this  naturally 
depresses  me.  I  begin  to  worry  and  feel  sorry  for  my  poor 
father  and  I  often  cry  over  it." 

What  the  patient  himself  thought  strange  was  the  fact 
that  he  had  absolutely  no  reason  for  such  thoughts.  He 
never  had  any  trouble  with  any  Christian.  On  the 
contrary  he  could  number  many  Christians  among  his 
friends.  He  had  been  employed  by  a  Christian  firm  and 
was  highly  regarded  and  the  one  person  with  whom  he 
had  some  differences  was  the  only  other  Jew  who  was 
employed  by  the  same  firm.  To  my  question  he  answered 
that  on  a  few  occasions  he  had  thought  of  committing 


THE    COMPULSION    NEUROSES  165 

suicide.  It  came  to  him  as  a  sort  of  a  command:  "You 
must  die."  But  he  argued  that  it  would  be  useless  to  do  it 
as  the  Christians  would  then  cut  up  his  body.  He  stated 
that  the  idea  came  on  suddenly  one  day  about  four  years 
before.  It  at  first  surprised  and  seemed  strange  to  him, 
but  he  soon  found  that  he  could  not  rid  himself  of  it.  He 
had  to  think  of  it  or  of  something  referring  to  it.  When 
asked  to  explain  he  said  that  he  was  always  spinning 
fancies  around  it.  He  elaborated  upon  all  sorts  of 
abstruse  questions  in  reference  to  it,  e.g.,  what  kind  of  a 
world  would  it  be  after  all  the  Jews  were  killed;  what 
would  Mrs.  X.  do;  suppose  Mr.  Z.  escapes,  etc.  As  a 
result  of  all  this  he  was  very  depressed,  had  no  ambition 
and  could  take  no  interest  in  anything. 

Besides  these  obsessions  he  complained  of  headaches  and 
a  peculiar  "dull  feeling"  which  came  on  from  time  to  time 
and  during  which  he  could  not  think.  He  also  stated 
that  he  was  very  often  suspicious.  He  feared  that  some 
one  would  make  remarks  to  him.  This  only  occurred  to 
him  when  he  visited  a  public  urinal. 

We  see  then  that  the  main  feature  of  the  case  is  the 
obsessive  thinking.  The  only  detail  that  would  lead  one 
to  think  of  paranoia  is  the  suspicion  in  public  urinals. 

In  his  observation  on  the  defense-neuropsychoses,  Freud 
describes  the  essence  and  mechanism  of  compulsion  neurosis 
as  follows:^  "Sexual  experiences  of  early  childhood  play 
the  same  part  in  the  etiology  of  the  compulsion  neurosis 
as  in  hysteria,  but  whereas  the  latter  is  characterized  by 
passivity  the  former  is  noted  for  its  aggression  or  sexual 
activity.  The  essence  of  the  compulsion  neurosis  may  be 
expressed  in  the  following  formula:  Obsessions  are  always 


166  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

transformed  reproaches  returning  from  repression  and  always 
refer  to  a  pleasurably  accomplished  sexual  action  of  childhood. 
The  typical  course  of  compulsion  neurosis  is  as  follows :  The 
first  period,  or  the  period  of  childish  unmorality,  contains 
the  germs  for  the  later  neurosis.  There  is  at  first  a  sexual 
seduction  which  later  makes  the  repression  possible. 
This  is  followed  by  the  actions  of  sexual  aggressions  against 
the  other  sex  which  later  manifest  themselves  as  actions 
of  reproach.  This  period  is  brought  to  an  end  by  the 
appearance  of — the  often  self  ripened — sexual  matur- 
ity. A  reproach  then  attaches  itself  to  the  memory  of 
that  pleasurable  action  and  the  connection  with  the  initial 
experience  of  passivity  makes  it  possible — only  after 
conscious  and  recollected  effort — to  repress  it  and  replace 
it  by  the  primary  symptom  of  the  defense.  The  third 
period,  that  of  apparent  healthiness,  but  really  of  successful 
defense,  begins  with  the  symptoms  of  scrupulousness, 
shame  and  diffidence.  The  next  period  of  the  disease 
is  characterized  by  the  return  of  the  repressed  reminis- 
cences, i.e.,  by  a  failure  of  the  defense.  But  the  revived 
reminiscences  and  the  reproaches  formed  from  them 
never  enter  into  consciousness  unchanged.  Instead,  com- 
promise formations  between  the  repressed  and  repressing 
ideas  become  conscious  as  an  obsession  and  obsessive 
affect  and  substitute  the  pathogenic  memory  in  the  con- 
scious life.  In  the  further  course  of  the  disease,  depending 
on  whether  the  memory  content  of  the  reproachful  action 
alone  forces  an  entrance  into  consciousness  or  whether  it 
takes  with  it  the  accompanying  reproaching  affect,  we  may 
have  two  forms  of  the  neurosis.  The  first  represents  the 
typical  obsession,  the  content  of  which  attracts  the  patient's 


THE    COMPULSION   NEUROSES  167 

attentiono  Only  an  indefinite  displeasure  is  perceived  as  an 
affect,  whereas  for  the  content  of  the  obsession  the  only 
suitable  affect  would  be  one  of  reproach.  The  second  form 
of  compulsion  neurosis  results  if  the  repressed  reproach  and 
not  the  repressed  memory  content  forces  a  replacement  in 
the  conscious  psychic  sphere.  The  affect  of  the  reproach 
can  change  itseK  into  any  other  affect  of  displeasure,  and  if 
this  occurs  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  the  substituting  affect 
from  becoming  conscious.  Thus  the  reproach  (of  having 
performed  in  childhood  some  sexual  actions)  may  be 
easily  transformed  into  shame  (lest  someone  becomes 
aware  of  it),  into  social  fear  (fearing  punishment  from 
others),  into  delusions  of  observation  (fear  of  betraying 
those  actions  to  others),  into  fear  of  temptation  (justified 
distrust  in  one's  own  ability  to  resist),  etc.  Moreover, 
the  memory  content  of  the  reproachful  action  may  also 
be  represented  in  consciousness,  or  it  may  be  altogether 
concealed,  which  makes  diagnosis  very  difficult.  Many 
cases  of  the  so-called  "periodic  neurasthenia"  or  "periodic 
melancholia"  may  be  explained  by  compulsive  affects. 
Besides  these  compromise  symptoms  which  signify  a 
return  of  the  repression  and  hence  a  failure  of  the  origin- 
ally achieved  defense,  the  compulsion  neurosis  forms  a 
series  of  other  symptoms  of  a  totally  different  origin. 
The  ego  really  tries  to  defend  itself  against  those  descend- 
ants of  the  initial  repressed  reminiscences,  and  in  this  con- 
flict of  defense  symptoms  are  produced,  which  may  be 
designated  as  "secondary  defense."  These  are  altogether 
protective  measures,  which  have  performed  good  service 
in  the  struggle  carried  on  against  the  obsession  and  the 
obsessing  affects.     If  these   helps  in  the  conflict  of  the 


168  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

defense  really  succeed  in  repressing  anew  the  symptoms 
of  return  obtruding  themselves  on  the  ego,  the  compulsion 
then  transmits  itself  to  the  protective  measures  them- 
selves and  produces  a  third  form  of  the  compulsion  neu- 
rosis, the  compulsive  actions.  These  are  never  primary. 
They  never  contain  anything  else  but  a  defense,  never  an 
aggression.  Despite  their  peculiarity  they  can  always 
be  fully  explained  by  reduction  to  the  compulsive  remin- 
iscences which  they  oppose. 

The  secondary  defense  of  the  obsessions  can  be  brought 
about  by  a  forcible  deviation  to  other  thoughts  of  possibly 
contrary  content;  hence  in  a  case  of  success  there  is  com- 
pulsive reasoning  concerning  abstract  and  transcendental 
subjects,  because  the  repressed  ideas  always  concern 
themselves  with  the  sensuous,  or  the  patient  tries  to  become 
master  of  every  compulsive  idea  through  logical  labor  and 
by  appealing  to  his  conscious  memory.  This  leads  to 
compulsive  thinking  and  examination  and  to  doubting 
mania.  The  priority  of  the  perception  before  the  memory 
in  these  examinations  at  first  induce  and  then  force  the 
patient  to  collect  and  preserve  all  objects  with  which  he 
comes  in  contact.  The  secondary  defense  against  the 
compulsive  affects  results  in  a  greater  number  of  defensive 
measures  which  are  capable  of  being  transformed  into 
compulsive  action.  These  can  be  grouped  according  to 
their  tendency.  We  may  have  acts  of  penitence  (irksome 
ceremonial  and  observation  of  numbers),  of  prevention 
(diverse  phobias,  superstitions,  pedantry,  aggravation  of  the 
primary  symptom  of  scrupulousness),  acts  of  fear  of 
betrayal  (collecting  papers  and  shyness),  and  acts  of 
becoming  unconscious  (dispomania).     Among  these  com- 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  169 

pulsive  acts  and  impulses  the  phobias  play  the  greatest 
part  as  limitations  of  the  patient's  capacity." 

Let  us  now  return  to  our  patient  and  see  in  how  far  he 
agrees  with  the  description  just  read.  Bearing  in  mind 
Freud's  dictum  that  no  neurosis  is  possible  in  a  normal 
vita  sexualis,  I  naturally  made  a  thorough  examination  of 
the  patient's  psychosexual  development.  As  usual  in  such 
examinations  his  answers  were  monosyllabic  and  evasive 
and  all  that  I  could  elicit  was  that  he  was  perfectly  well 
sexually  until  the  age  of  jfifteen  or  sixteen  years  when  he 
began  to  masturbate.  He  began  to  consort  with  women 
at  eighteen  years,  but  indulged  rarely.  He  admitted  that 
his  marriage  was  not  a  happy  one,  but  stated  that  his 
sexual  life  was  normal.  Previous  to  marriage  he  went 
through  many  conflicts.  He  was  afraid  that  masturbation 
would  drive  him  crazy  and  therefore  stopped  it,  but  he 
then  began  to  suffer  from  frequent  pollutions  which  worried 
him  a  good  deal.  He  entertained  the  usual  hypochon- 
driacal ideas  of  the  masturbator.  He  seemed  to  be  un- 
willing to  tell  me  anything  else  and  I  did  not  urge  him. 
I  was  sure  that  there  was  abundant  material  and  that 
he  would  tell  it  to  me  sooner  or  later.  In  the  course  of 
psychoanalysis  we  often  come  to  what  seems  a  stone  wall. 
The  patient  has  nothing  to  tell  us  and  he  does  not  dream. 
This  is  only  a  form  of  resistance  which  the  experienced 
psychoanalysist  must  know  how  to  break. 

As  the  character  of  a  person  represents  the  reaction 
formations  of  his  latency  period  it  is  always  wise  to  exam- 
ine these  reactions  especially  those  that  are  accentuated, 
and  as  our  patient  seemed  to  be  very  shy — he  never  looked 
me  in  the  face  while  talking — I  asked  him  if  he  was  un- 


170  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

usually  bashful.  To  my  surprise  he  answered  that  bash- 
fulness  or  shame  was  responsible  for  his  obsession.  He 
stated  that  he  had  been  abnormally  bashful  and  shy  since 
he  was  twelve  years  old.  This  was  especially  noticeable 
when  he  was  in  the  presence  of  women.  A  few  years  be- 
fore he  became  acquainted  with  a  young  lady  who  invited 
him  to  call.  He  was  very  anxious  to  do  so,  but  was  too 
shy  and  bashful  to  accept  her  invitation.  The  following 
morning  while  half  awake  he  noticed  that  he  was  not  bash- 
ful. This  gave  him  the  idea  that  if  he  could  remain  in  a 
half  waking  state  he  would  not  be  bashful.  He  remained 
in  this  state  for  two  days,  when  he  suddenly  began  to 
think  of  Jews  and  Christians  and  later  of  the  obsession. 
This  half  waking  state  was  simply  a  secondary  defense 
against  a  painful  idea.  The  neuroses  make  prolific  use  of 
such  mechanisms.  Thus  many  dipsomanias  are  nothing 
but  flights  from  consciousness  or  means  of  becoming  un- 
conscious. I  had  occasion  to  analyze  two  female  patients 
who  were  subject  to  screaming  spells.  They  had  to  scream 
apparently  without  any  provocation.  Analysis  showed 
that  the  screaming  was  merely  a  flight  from  a  painful 
thought.  With  their  screaming  they  drowned  their  inner 
painful  and  disagreeable  voices.  Many  hysterical  fainting 
spells  show  the  same  mechanism.  Our  patient  merged  into 
a  semi-stuporous  state  not  only  to  escape  from  the  abnormal 
bashfulness,  but  from  those  thoughts  which  caused  this 
reaction. 

This  revelation  threw  no  hght  on  the  subject.  From 
the  nature  of  the  obsession  and  the  patient's  extreme 
devotion  to  his  parents,  especially  the  father,  I  at  once 
surmised    that    there    was    probably    a    strong    repressed 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  171 

sadistic  component  and  that  the  pronounced  abnormal 
bashfulness  could  only  be  looked  upon  as  a  transformed 
reproach  of  sexual  acts  in  childhood.  On  going  more 
deeply  into  the  infantile  sexuality  I  discovered  the  follow- 
ing facts:  R.  was  an  only  child  and  therefore  received  more 
than  the  usual  amount  of  love  from  his  parents. ^  He  was 
idolized  by  both  parents,  especially  by  his  mother  with 
whom  he  slept  almost  constantly  until  the  age  of  four 
years.  This  was  favored  by  the  fact  that  his  father's 
business  necessitated  his  remaining  away  from  home  for 
long  periods.  At  that  age  something  happened  which 
changed  his  mother's  attitude  toward  him.  The  patient 
attempted  something  of  a  sexual  nature  with  a  little  girl 
with  whom  he  played  on  the  roof  and  was  severely  punished 
for  it  by  the  girl's  and  his  own  mother.  The  latter  be- 
came very  severe  with  him.  She  allowed  him  to  sleep 
with  her  but  kept  him  at  a  distance.  He  felt  this  very 
keenly  and  cried  in  silence,  but  said  nothing.  The  mother 
instinctively  reproached  herself  for  the  son's  sexual  pre- 
maturity. By  giving  him  too  much  affection  she  awak- 
ened and  kept  alive  his  infantile  sexuality  which  then  in- 
cited him  to  attempt  with  the  little  girl  what  his  own 
mother  innocently  permitted.  The  estrangement  from  his 
mother  strengthened  his  attachment  for  his  father  and  as 
the  latter  was  rarely  at  home  and  made  a  great  fuss  over 
him  whenever  he  returned  that  feeling  continued  for  some 
time.  The  boy  was  very  happy  when  his  father  returned 
and  cried  bitterly  when  he  left  home.  It  would  seem  that 
the  latency  period  did  not  progress  in  the  normal  manner 
for  the  patient  recalled  many  instances  of  sexual  aggres- 
sion and  a  homosexual  experience  with  two  adults.     At 


172  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  age  of  from  six  to  seven  years  he  was  self-willed,  wild 
and  very  revengeful.  He  evinced  a  special  cruelty  to  ani- 
mals and  was  happy  when  he  could  kill  a  bird  or  kick  a 
cat.  One  of  his  favorite  pastimes  was  to  wring  the  necks 
of  chickens  or  to  stuff  up  their  nasal  openings  with  wax 
and  hold  their  beaks  until  they  suffocated. 

We  now  come  to  the  age  of  puberty.  The  patient 
recalled  that  at  the  age  of  nine  years  he  was  very  inquisi- 
tive sexually  and  would  look  under  girls'  dresses  whenever 
he  could.  At  twelve  years  a  man  attempted  to  have 
sexual  relations  with  him,  but  he  refused.  Soon  there- 
after he  became  shy  and  abnormally  bashful.  From 
twelve  to  fifteen  years  there  were  no  sexual  experiences 
to  note.  It  may  be  called  a  deferred  latency  period.  At 
fifteen  he  plaj^ed  with  little  girls  and  about  the  same  time 
began  to  masturbate.  When  he  was  about  sixteen,  while 
peddling  in  the  farming  districts  he  began  to  exhibit  in 
the  presence  of  women.  He  claimed  that  this  action 
gave  him  a  "strange  pleasant  feeling."  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  he  began  to  practise  active  pederastry  with  a 
boy  of  thirteen  which  continued  for  about  a  year  once 
every  three  weeks.  At  eighteen  he  began  to  consort 
with  women,  but  with  the  exception  of  a  few  experiences 
he  led  a  continent  life  until  he  was  married  at  twenty-two 
years.  Since  the  birth  of  his  child  he  had  practised  coitus 
interruptus.  His  married  life  did  not  seem  to  influence 
his  neurosis.  He  stated  that  he  was  especially  annoyed 
by  his  obsession  during  the  marriage  ceremony,  and  that 
although  the  obsession  was  not  so  strong  during  the  first 
year  of  his  married  life  it  soon  resumed  its  former  com- 
pulsiveness  and  constancy. 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  173 

The  facts  that  I  have  thus  far  obtained  did  not  come  out 
as  smoothly  as  you  might  imagine.  It  was  a  constant 
struggle  with  enormous  unconscious  and  conscious 
resistances,  the  overcoming  of  which  required  much  effort 
and  patience  and,  I  might  add,  skill.  But  the  patient 
soon  became  interested  in  the  work  and  as  the  resistances 
were  broken  he  spoke  freely  about  his  abnormal  sexual 
life. 

As  has  been  stated  before,  we  make  use  of  dream  inter- 
pretation, for  the  dream  is  the  via  regia  to  the  unconscious. 
At  my  request  the  patient  brought  me  his  dreams.  It  was 
through  these  dreams  that  I  discovered  most  of  the  details 
enumerated  above.  To  show  how  the  dream  gives  us  in- 
formation I  will  cite  a  dream  which  he  brought  about  four 
months  after  the  beginning  of  the  analysis.  It  read  as  fol- 
lows: "I  passed  a  store  and  saw  a  mad  dog,  a  cat  and  a  goat. 
A  crowd  was  watching  them.  I  said  to  somebody,  ^It  is  a 
wonder  that  they  let  that  mad  dog  bite  the  horse.'  Just  then  a 
policeman  began  to  shoot  at  the  mad  dog.  He  fired  six  shots, 
but  missed  it.  The  policeman  then  got  in  the  window  and  was 
going  to  take  the  7nad  dog  to  the  lock-up,  and  it  looked  something 
like  a  horse  and  then  it  was  a  man."  While  still  half  asleep 
he  said  to  himself  "I  must  write  that  down  for  the  doctor!" 

To  one  who  knows  the  language  of  the  unconscious  this 
dream  tells  many  things.  The  appendix  to  the  dream 
"I  must  write  that  down  for  the  doctor"  very  often  occurs 
in  dreams  in  the  course  of  psychoanalysis  and  regularly 
corresponds  to  a  great  resistance  to  the  confession 
involved  in  the  dream  and  is  frequently  followed  by  the 
forgetting  of  the  dream.  It  also  means  that  the  dreamer 
decided  not  to  tell  anything  about  it  to  the  doctor.     This 


174  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

was  also  confirmed  by  the  crowd  in  the  dream  which 
signifies  a  secret.  As  the  dreamer  himself  is  always  the 
principal  actor  in  the  dream  I  concluded  that  he  must  be 
concealed  under  the  mad  dog.  This,  too,  is  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  the  mad  dog  later  became  transformed 
into  a  man.  But  as  the  dog  was  also  a  horse,  there  must 
be  some  community  between  the  horse  and  the  dog  and 
the  man.  The  type  of  the  dream  shows  that  it  is  of  a 
sexual  nature.'  When  I  asked  him  to  tell  me  what  the 
policeman  brought  to  his  mind  he  finally  recalled  a  rather 
disagreeable  reminiscence.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  taking  little  girls  on  his  lap  and  on  the 
pretence  of  playing  with  them  he  masturbated.  On  one 
of  these  occasions  in  the  Bronx  Park  he  was  suddenly 
detected  by  a  policeman  who  ran  after  him  and  threatened 
to  shoot  him.  Animals  in  dreams  as  mentioned  above  are 
usually  sexual  symbols  and  as  he  could  give  no  associations  I 
was  convinced  that  there  must  have  been  something  between 
him  and  the  animals  of  a  sexual  nature.  These  are  no 
arbitrary  deductions,  but  they  are  based  on  psychological 
facts  which  all  who  are  interested  can  find  in  "The  In- 
terpretation of  Dreams."  I  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him 
my  conclusions,  and  after  enormous  resistance  and  great 
emotivity  he  admitted  that  he  was  guilty  of  bestiality  with 
the  horse,  dog  and  sheep.  This  occurred  while  he  was 
peddling  in  the  farming  districts,  between  the  ages  of 
seventeen  and  eighteen.  It  was  not  a  case  of  erotic  zoophi- 
lia, as  he  has  not  resorted  to  such  practises  since.  It  was 
simply  a  case  of  faut  de  mieux  in  a  sexually  hyperesthetic 
and  very  bashful  boy. 

Without  going  into  any  detailed  discussion,  I  will  simply 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  175 

state  that  a  study  of  our  patient's  psychosexnal  life  shows 
that  it  agrees  in  every  particular  with  what  I  have  quoted 
above  concerning  the  development  of  the  normal  and 
abnormal  sexual  life  from  the  polymorphous  perverse 
infantile  sexuality.  Let  us  now  see  how  this  corresponds 
with  the  patient's  compulsive  idea. 

When  I  first  heard  the  principal  obsession,  viz.,  that 
all  the  Jews  will  be  killed  by  the  Christians,  I  was,  perforce, 
reminded  of  such  personages  as  Catherine  de  Medici  and 
Gil  de  Rais.  I  was  struck  by  the  idea  of  such  unheard-of 
wholesale  slaughter,  and  remembering  that  the  symptom 
represents  the  whole  or  a  partial  sexual  manifestation  of  the 
patient  from  the  sources  of  the  normal  or  perverse  partial 
impulses  of  sexuality,  I  naturally  thought  that  there  must 
be  a  marked  enhancement  of  the  sadistic  component  in  the 
patient's  psychosexuality.  As  I  have  shown  above,  my  as- 
sumption was  fully  confirmed.  Further  investigations  of 
the  causes  of  the  obsession  in  mature  life  brought  out  the 
fact  that  it  appeared  suddenly  at  about  the  age  of  twenty 
while  the  patient  was  seriously  thinking  of  marrying,  and 
just  after  getting  over  an  unhappy  love  affair.  This  amour 
was  with  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  whose  acquaintance  he 
made  while  traveling  near  her  home.  He  was  very  fond  of 
the  girl  and  would  have  married  her  but  for  his  father  who 
would  not  hear  of  his  marrying  a  Christian.  His  father 
played  a  peculiar  part  in  R.'s  life.  There  was  a  constant 
struggle  of  the  two  contrary  feelings  of  love  and  hatred. 
Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  he  hated  him  as  intensely  as 
he  loved  him.  The  continued  existence  of  such  contrasts 
or  ambivalent  feelings,  is  possible  only  under  special  psychic 
determination  and  with  the  help  of  the  unconscious  state. 


176  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

We  know  that  the  contrasting  feelings  of  love  and  hatred 
can  be  readily  entertained  in  reference  to  indifferent  persons. 
Thus,  a  clerk  may  think  that  his  superior  is  an  excellent 
executive  man,  but  an  unscrupulous  lawyer.  But  when  it 
concerns  some  one  nearer  to  us,  let  us  say  a  wife  or  parent,  we 
strive  for  a  single  feeling  and  we  therefore  overlook  the  faults 
which  may  provoke  displeasure.  But  the  love  does  not  ex- 
tinguish the  hatred.  It  merely  represses  it  into  the  uncon- 
scious where  it  is  kept  from  destruction  and  may  even  grow 
in  intensity.*  The  determinant  of  this  peculiar  constel- 
lation of  love  lies  in  the  separation  of  these  contrasting 
feelings  and  a  repression  of  one — usually  the  hatred — at  a 
very  early  age.  As  a  preliminary  explanation  of  the  com- 
pulsion neurosis,  Freud  states  that  the  sadistic  component 
of  love  was  especially  strongly  developed  constitutionally 
in  those  cases  of  unconscious  hatred  and  for  that  reason 
they  were  subjected  to  a  premature  and  thorough  repres- 
sion. The  phenomena  of  the  neurosis,  then,  take  their 
origin  on  the  one  hand  from  the  conscious  attachment 
which  comes  to  the  surface  as  a  reaction  to  hatred,  and  on 
the  other  hand  from  the  unconscious  sadism  in  operation. 
If  we  review  the  patient's  relation  to  his  father  we  find  that 
at  an  early  age  he  was,  as  it  were,  his  rival.  Whenever  the 
father  was  home  he  had  to  renounce  many  pleasures,  such 
as  sleeping  with  his  mother.  Later  on  when  his  mother 
changed  her  attitude  toward  him  he  became  very  attached 
to  his  father,  but  he  also  often  had  occasion  to  hate  him  be- 
cause he  was  often  punished.  As  he  grew  older  these  feel- 
ings were  intensified  by  the  fact  that  his  father  was  an 
orthodox  Jew  and  he  wanted  to  be  an  American.  He  was 
ashamed  to  be  seen  with  his  father  because  the  street 


THE    COMPULSION    NEUROSES  177 

urchins  made  derogatory  remarks  about  him.  They  called 
him  Jew  and  Sheeny.  He  himself  often  applied  the  same 
epithets  to  him,  which  was  naturaUj^  followed  by  a  re- 
proach and  an  outburst  of  affection.  When  his  father 
opposed  his  marriage  with  the  Christain  girl  the  old  rivalry 
was  revived.  His  father  again  stood  in  his  way  of  attain- 
ing his  sexual  object.  Just  as  he  kept  him  away  from  his 
mother  during  childhood  so  he  now  prevented  him  from 
marrying.  His  feeling  for  the  girl  was  also  characterized 
by  the  contrasts  of  love  and  hatred,  but  whereas  this  was 
largely  a  conscious  perception,  his  former  intense  con- 
scious hostility  toward  his  father  escaped  him  long  ago 
and  could  only  be  brought  to  consciousness  in  the  face  of 
the  most  violent  resistance.  This  was  especially  favored 
by  his  long  abstinence  and  recent  love  which  thus  helped 
to  enhance  his  libido  and  to  take  up  again  the  old  struggle 
against  the  authority  of  the  father.  We  may  say  that 
the  repression  of  the  infantile  hatred  toward  his  father 
gave  rise  to  all  further  happenings  of  the  neurosis.  While 
he  was  wavering  between  his  father  and  his  beloved  and 
escaped  from  conscious  reflection  by  merging  into  a  semi- 
stuperous  state,  he  was  one  day  attracted  by  the  big  red 
head  lines  of  a  newspaper  about  the  massacre  of  the  Jews 
in  Russia.  As  his  father  was  a  Russian  Jew  a  thought 
something  like  the  following  suddenly  flashed  through  his 
mind:  "If  my  father  were  only  there,"  which  may  be  com- 
pleted "he  would  be  killed  and  I  could  marry  a  Christian;" 
but  this  conscious  perception  was  naturally  at  once  sup- 
pressed. A  few  days  later  he  began  to  compare  notes 
about  Jews  and  Christians  which  finally  developed  into 
the  obsession   "All  Jews   will   be   killed   by   Christians." 

12 


178  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

In  other  words  the  whole  process  followed  the  well-known 
mechanism  of  projection,  i.e.,  an  inner  perception  is  sup- 
pressed and  as  a  substitute  its  content  comes  into  con- 
sciousness as  a  perception  from  without  after  it  has  under- 
gone some  distortion.  The  distortions  are  effected  in  the 
same  way  as  in  dreams,  i.e.,  by  substitution,  displacement, 
inversion,  ellipses,  etc.  Here  it  was  not  a  real  distortion, 
but  rather  a  generalization  which  is  a  common  mechanism 
of  obsessions.^ 

After  this  analysis  the  obsession  from  which  the  patient 
had  suffered  for  about  four  years  and  which  had  caused 
him  untold  misery  soon  disappeared.  The  treatment 
lasted  for  about  four  months,  during  which  I  saw  the 
patient  at  first  three  times  a  week,  then  twice  and  once  a 
week.  We  usually  spent  an  hour  at  each  session.  The 
patient  was  by  no  means  cured.  There  was  still  much  to 
be  done.  Thus  his  homosexual  component  had  to  be  dealt 
with,*  After  eight  months  treatment  I  discharged  him 
as  cured.  Since  then  he  has  become  more  ambitious. 
He  gave  up  his  position  as  driver  and  is  now  the  owner 
of  a  well  paying  business. 

The  analysis  of  this  case  fully  confirms  Freud's  assertion 
that  a  special  aggressive  activity  in  childhood  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  later  compulsion  neurosis.  This  activity 
manifests  itself  preponderately  in  an  intensive  occupation 
with  the  desire  for  looking  and  knowing.  The  rich  and 
active  emotional  life  of  childhood  helps  to  develop  pro- 
fusely the  feelings  of  love  and  hatred  toward  parents, 
or  sisters  and  brothers,  a  mechanism  which  will  be  described 

*  Analysis  showed  that  his  suspicion  in  public  urinals  was  due  to  a 
repressed  wish  to  exhibit  in  order  to  attract  those  near  him. 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  179 

as  the  cedipus  complex,  which,  in  addition  to  the  curiosity 
concerning  sex  and  birth,  forms  the  central  complex  of 
the  neurosis.  One  always  finds  in  the  symptom  formation 
of  compulsion  neurosis  a  continuous  struggle  between 
love  and  hatred  for  the  same  person,  and  as  we  said  above 
such  feeling  is  only  possible  under  special  psychic 
determinations.  The  following  case  demonstrates  some 
of  these  factors:* 

A  young  man  of  twenty-three  years  had  been  suflfering  from  a  very 
severe  compulsion  neurosis  since  his  boyhood.  He  was  obsessed  with 
a  great  many  very  bizarre  obsessions,  a  number  of  which  dealt  with 
the  idea  of  death.  For  years  he  had  to  argue  for  hours  and  some- 
times for  days  about  the  idea  of  "killing  time."  Some  of  the  ob- 
sessive thoughts  ran  as  follows:  "Am  I  accomphshing  anything  in  my 
work,  or  am  I  only  killing  time?"  "  Is  Mr.  X.  (a  prominent  architect) 
getting  the  pleasure  out  of  his  work,  or  is  he  only  killing  time?" 
"What  is  the  use  of  doing  anything  if  you  are  only  killing  time?" 
When  he  was  invited  to  society  he  at  once  began  to  argue  about 
killing  time.  During  his  visits  with  me  he  would  often  implore  me  to 
stop  the  analysis  and  answer  some  of  his  questions  about  killing  time. 
He  wanted  to  know  whether  I  enjoyed  my  work,  or  if  I  was  only  killing 
time.  One  of  his  oft-repeated  questions  was :  "  Do  people  really  enjoy 
living,  or  are  they  only  killing  time  for  want  of  something  to  do?" 
In  the  characteristic  manner  of  this  disease  he  formed  the  strangest 
sort  of  combinations  about  this  obsessive  thought.  The  patient  was 
with  me  for  months,  and,  though  he  made  much  progress,  I  was  help- 
less when  it  came  to  this  obsession.  A  niunber  of  times  I  felt  sure  that 
I  had  found  the  solution,  but  while  he  was  perfectly  willing  to  accept 
what  I  said,  the  obsession  continued  unabated,  until  one  day  when  I 
analyzed  one  of  his  dreams  in  which  an  old  man,  who  proved  to  be  his 
father,  played  a  prominent  part.  I  wiU  say,  in  passing,  that  his 
neurosis  was  directed  entirely  against  his  father.  His  feelings  toward 
the  latter  were  ambivalent;  he  was  abnormally  attached  to  him,  and  at 

*This  case  was  originally  reported  in  The  Journal  of  Abnormal 
Psychology,  December,  1913.  Cf.  Brill:  Psychoanalytic  Fragments 
from  a  Day's  Work. 


180  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  same  time  he  hated  him  unconsciously.  This  was  especially  en- 
hanced by  his  father's  second  marriage.  He  hated  his  stepmother  with 
all  the  possible  hatred  of  a  stepson,  although  on  the  surface  nothing 
could  be  detected,  if  anything  he  was  believed  to  be  devoted  to  her. 
The  associations  to  the  old  man  of  the  dream  recalled  many  old  men 
he  had  known,  plus  a  mass  of  ideas  connected  with  them.  He  con- 
tinued to  associate  ideas  for  some  time,  and  one  set  of  associations  re- 
peated itself  with  slight  variations  over  and  over  again,  until  it  occurred 
to  me  that  there  must  be  some  reason  for  this  recurrence.  The  asso- 
ciations ran  as  follows:  "Mr.  X.  is  a  fine  old  man.  .  .  .  Mr.  Z.  is 
another  nice  old  gentleman,  whom  I  met  while  I  took  my  trip  aroimd 
the  world.  He  was  very  interested  in  me — he  took  a  sort  of 
fatherly  interest  in  me.  He  is  not  as  old  as  he  looks;  his  long,  gray 
beard  gives  him  a  patriarchal  air;  now  he  reminds  me  of  Father  Time, 
who  is  represented  as  an  old,  patriarchal-looking  man,  holding  a 
scythe."  When  I  pressed  him  for  further  associations  he  thought  of 
his  own  father,  to  whom  he  often  referred  as  "the  old  man,"  and 
added:  "My  father  is  not  as  old,  and  has  no  beard,  though  he  shows 
some  resemblance  to  Mr.  Z."  The  meaning  of  the  obsession  suddenly 
became  clear  to  me.  "Killing  time"  meant  killing  his  father,  which 
was  one  of  his  unconscious  thoughts.  The  obsession  was  formed  first 
by  the  slight  resemblance  between  the  picture  of  Father  Time  and 
his  own  father*  by  substituting  the  idea,  "Father  Time,"  for  the 
visual  picture  and  by  omitting  the  word  father  (ellipsis).  The  idea 
of  killing  was  symbolized  by  the  scythe. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  describe  the  patient's  reaction  on  hearing 
this  analysis;  I  wish  it  were  possible  to  depict  it  in  some  way.  The 
emotional  reaction  was  marvelous;  for  the  moment  he  was  speechless; 
he  then  cried  and  laughed,  and  exclaimed,  "  Now  you've  got  it,  I  can 
feel  it,  you  have  taken  a  ton  off  my  head."  The  obsession  disap- 
peared with  the  analysis. 

However,  whenever  an  intensive  love  is  confronted  by 
just  as  strong  a  hatred  there  always  results  a  partial  paralysis 
of  volition.  It  is  an  inability  to  form  decisions  in  all  those 
actions  for   which  love  forms  the   motive   power.     This 

*He  finally  recalled  that  while  living  abroad  a  few  years  ago  his 
father  wore  a  full  beard. 


THE    COMPULSION    NEUROSES  181 

indecision  does  not  confine  itself  long  to  one  group,  but 
becomes  diffused  over  all  actions  by  the  familiar  mechanism 
of  displacement. 

This  gives  rise  to  the  predominance  of  compulsion  and 
doubt  as  we  find  them  in  the  psychic  life  of  compulsive 
neurotics.  "Doubt  corresponds  to  the  inner  perception  of 
the  indecision,  which  in  consequence  of  the  inhibition  of 
love  through  hatred  usurps  every  intentional  action  of  the 
patient."^  It  is  really  the  doubt  above  love  which  should 
be  the  most  certain  of  all  subjective  feelings,  which  spreads 
to  everything  else  and  then  becomes  displaced  to  the 
most  indifferent  trifles.  He  who  doubts  his  love  must 
also  doubt  everything  of  lesser  importance.  A  few 
years  ago  I  was  consulted  by  a  man  of  fifty-six  years 
who  was  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  he  was  not  fit  for 
the  position  he  occupied.  He  stated  that  he  was  not 
sure  of  his  actions,  that  no  matter  what  he  did  he  imagined 
was  wrong,  and  that  he  really  made  many  business 
mistakes.  He  resigned  his  position  as  manager  of  a  big 
business  concern,  but  after  examining  everj^thing  the 
officers  of  the  company  were  satisfied  that  he  made  no 
mistakes  at  all  and  insisted  upon  his  remaining  with  them. 
I  myself  spoke  with  a  member  of  the  firm  who  told  me 
that  during  his  thirty  years  service  there  had  been  no 
complaints  against  him.  The  patient  admitted  that  he 
was  quite  capable  of  filling  his  office  up  to  a  few  months 
before  but  that  since  then  he  had  been  doubting  the 
correctness  of  his  business  transactions.  In  brief  it  was 
a  typical  case  of  doubting  mania. 

The  analysis  revealed  that  the  neurosis  became  manifest 
when  he  was  about  to  marry  a  young  woman  who   was 


182  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

twenty-two  years  his  junior.  He  at  first  worried  over  the 
fact  that  he  would  not  be  able  to"  make  good  "as  a  husband, 
because  he  believed  himself  to  be  sexually  impotent.  This 
doubt  then  became  generalized  and  displaced  to  all  his 
business  transactions.  Long  before  he  consulted  me  he  no 
longer  thought  of  his  sexual  impotence,  but  occupied  him- 
self constantly  with  absurd  questions  concerning  legitimate 
business  affairs. 

The  same  doubt  which  produces  uncertainty  and  leads 
to  continued  repetition  in  the  protective  measures,  in 
order  to  drive  away  uncertainty,  finally  brings  it  about 
that  these  protective  acts  become  just  as  impossible  of 
accomplishment  as  the  originally  inhibited  decision  of 
love.  Thus  a  patient  recommended  to  me  by  Dr.  Pierce 
Bailey  of  New  York  was  in  the  habit  of  praying  for  an 
hour  and  sometimes  even  longer  before  retiring.  His 
father  stated  that  he  could  not  be  stopped  and  that  he 
usually  fell  asleep  while  praying  on  his  knees.  This 
patient  was  not  very  religious.  He  told  me  that  his 
prayers  were  constantly  interrupted  by  extraneous 
blasphemous  thoughts  which  usually  repeated  the  opposite 
of  what  he  was  praying  for.  Investigation  showed  that 
his  prayers  were  usually  offered  for  those  who  played  the 
leading  part  in  his  neurosis  and  that  the  fancies  obtruding 
themselves  contained  the  opposite  impulse  of  that  which 
the  prayer  was  to  ward  off. 

The  compulsion,  however,  is  an  attempted  compensa- 
tion for  the  doubt  and  a  correction  for  the  unbearable 
state  of  inhibition  as  evidenced  by  the  doubt.  If  any  of 
the  inhibited  resolutions  is  finally  decided  upon,  it  must 
be  brought  to  completion.     To  be  sure  it  is  no  longer  the 


THE   COMPULSION   NEUROSES  183 

original  one,  but  its  dammed  in  energy  will  not  abandon 
the  opportunity  of  finding  an  outlet  through  the  substitu- 
tive action.  It  therefore  manifests  itself  in  commands 
and  prohibitions  depending  on  whether  the  loved  or  the 
hostile  impulse  occupies  the  path  of  discharge.  If  the 
obsessive  command  cannot  be  brought  to  execution  it 
produces  an  unbearable  tension  which  is  perceived  as 
marked  anxiety. 

These  are  some  of  the  deeper  mechanisms  of  compulsion 
neurosis.  I  realize  that  some  may  find  them  somewhat 
too  complicated  to  follow,  but  the  only  way  of  obviating 
these  difficulties  is  close  study  and  personal  experience. 

References 

1.  Selected  papers  on  Hysteria,  p.  155. 

2.  Cj.  Chap.  XIV.  on  The  Only  Child. 

3.  C/.  Chap.  IV. 

4.  Jahrb.  f.  Psychoanal.  u.  Psychopath.  Forschungen,  Vol.  I,  p.  375. 

5.  L.  c,  p.  419.  See  also,  The  Adjustment  of  the  Jew  to  the 
American  Enviroment,  Mental  Hygiene,  April,  1918. 

6.  L.  c.  p.  416. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  UNCONSCIOUS  FACTORS  IN  THE  NEUROSES 

One  of  the  rules  that  I  invariably  follow  in  my  psycho- 
analytic work  is  not  to  analyze  the  patient's  dreams  until  I 
am  fairly  well  acquainted  with  the  "lay  of  the  land"  of  his 
mental  make-up.  Dream  analyses  require  the  full  coopera- 
tion of  the  dreamer.  He  must  conceal  absolutely  nothing 
that  enters  into  his  consciousness  during  the  analysis  and  be 
ready  to  answer  all  questions  put  to  him.  It  often  happens 
that  I  hear  dreams  that  could  be  analyzed  without  any 
assistance,  but,  as  a  rule,  it  is  impossible  to  get  at  all  the 
facts  without  the  dreamer's  help.  To  obtain  this  one  must 
have  the  patient's  confidence;  there  must  be  some  rapport 
between  patient  and  doctor,  and  it  usually  takes  a  few 
weeks  before  this  is  established.  Now  and  then,  however, 
one  is  forced  to  make  an  exception,  and  rarely  it  is  even 
necessary  to  utilize  dream  analysis  to  bring  about  this 
rapport.  It  is  of  such  an  experience  that  I  am  about  to 
speak. 

A  very  brilliant  but  rather  skeptical  woman  of  thirty-six 

years — she  was  a  doctor's  daughter — was  referred  to  me  for 

psychoanalytic  treatment  because  of  a  very  severe  neurosis 

from  which  she  had  been  suffering  over  fifteen  years.     She 

soon  learned  from  friends  and  acquaintances  that  I  was  a 

dream  interpreter,  and  was  anxiously  waiting  to  find  out 

the  meaning  of  her  dreams.     At  my  request  she  brought  me 

dreams  every  day,  but  I  refused  to  tell  her  their  meaning. 

184 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    FACTORS    IN   THE    NEUROSES        185 

She  then  sought  information  from  the  Hteratiire,  and,  con- 
trary to  my  wishes,  read  my  translation  of  Freud's  Selected 
Papers  on  Hysteria.  One  morning  she  brought  the  follow- 
ing dream:  ''/  was  with  a  crowd  of  people,  and  we  wanted 
to  pick  some  flowers,  or  rather  wanted  to  steal  them.  We 
came  to  a  garden  and  I  saw  beautiful  flowers.  I  was  about 
to  steal  some  when  suddenly  I  descried  a  man  looking  out 
of  a  window.  Fearing  that  I  was  detected,  I  asked  him 
whether  I  could  pick  some  flowers.  He  juinped  up  and  cried: 
'Now  I  know  who  has  been  stealing  all  these  flowers.'  I  was 
frightened,  started  to  run  away,  and  awoke.'' 

When  she  finished  reciting  the  dream  she  teasingly 
demanded  its  meaning,  and  when  I  reminded  her  that  I  did 
not  analyze  dreams  for  the  first  few  weeks,  she  mockingly 
accused  me  of  not  knowing  what  the  dream  meant  and 
harassed  me  with  the  question:  ''What  does  it  mean  to  pick 
flowers  in  a  dream?"  until  I  was  forced  to  take  up  the  analy- 
sis. When  I  asked  her  to  focus  her  attention  on  the  dream 
and  repeat  her  thoughts  she  insisted  that  nothing  came  to 
her  mind.  This  answer,  "Nothing  comes  to  my  mind,"  is 
often  heard  from  beginners  who  are  not  accustomed  to 
"continuous  associations,"  from  people  who  are  impeded 
by  conscious  or  unconscious  resistances,  and,  last  but  not 
least,  one  hears  this  answer  where  the  element  of  the  dream 
refers  to  a  symbolic  expression.  In  the  last  case  the  mean- 
ing is  found  in  the  symbol  or  double  meaning  expressed  in 
the  element  of  the  dream.  It  did  not  take  me  long  to  decide 
that  we  dealt  here  with  the  last  theory,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  dream  soon  became  clear  to  me.  As  a  prologue  to  the 
interpretation  I  shall  relate  the  following  facts:  As  I  said 
above,  I  was  aware  that  the  patient  had  read  Professor 


186  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Freud's  book,  and  when  she  kept  on  hurling  at  me  the  ques- 
tion of  flower  picking  in  the  dream  some  passages  in  the  book 
flashed  through  my  mind.  These  passages  deal  with  the 
mechanism  of  the  therapeutic  effects  of  the  psychoneuroses. 
Thus,  we  are  told  that  the  "psychoneuroses  are  distorted 
substitutive  gratifications  of  impulses,  the  existence  of  which 
one  must  deny  to  himself  and  to  others;"  that  "their 
capacity  to  exist  rests  on  the  distortion  and  misjudgment;" 
and  that  with  the  solution  of  the  riddle  they  present,  and 
with  the  acceptance  of  the  solution  by  the  patients,  these 
morbid  states  become  incapable  of  existence."^  In  brief,  it 
is  asserted  that  the  morbid  symptom  disappears  as  soon  as 
psychoanalysis  discovers  its  hidden  meaning  and  brings  it  to 
the  surface.  By  way  of  illustration,  Freud  mentions  the 
fact  that  the  visual  hallucination  of  the  Holy  Virgin  used  to 
be  a  frequent  occurrence  among  peasant  girls,  and  as  long 
as  such  a  manifestation  drew  a  large  crowd  of  believers,  and 
even  resulted  in  the  erection  of  a  chapel  over  the  holy 
shrine,  the  visionary  state  of  these  girls  remained  inac- 
cessible to  suggestion.  To-day  even  the  priesthood  has 
changed  its  attitude  toward  such  manifestations.  They 
allow  the  doctor  and  the  policeman  to  take  charge  of  the 
visionary  girl,  and  consequently  the  Holy  Virgin  seldom 
reveals  herself  nowadays.  To  illustrate  further,  he  says: 
"Let  us  assume  that  a  circle  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  good 
breeding  have  agreed  upon  making  a  day's  excursion  to 
some  country  place.  The  ladies  have  decided  among 
themselves  that  if  one  of  them  should  desire  to  satisfy  a 
natural  want  she  was  to  say  aloud  that  she  was  going  to  pick 
some  flowers.  But  a  mischievous  joker  discovered  this 
secret  and  put  on  the  printed  programme  sent  to  those 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    FACTORS   IN    THE    NEUROSES       187 

invited:  'If  the  ladies  wish  to  ease  Nature  they  should  say- 
that  they  are  going  to  pick  flowers'.  Of  course,  none  of  the 
ladies  would  then  wish  to  make  use  of  this  covert  allusion, 
and  this  also  made  impossible  the  use  of  a  similar  formula." 
These  quotations  from  Freud's  book  came  to  my  mind 
and,  as  you  can  see,  furnished  the  key  to  the  dream.  How- 
ever, to  verify  my  assumption,  I  ascertained  that  she  had 
finished  reading  the  book  the  evening  before  the  dream.  I 
might  add  that  the  passages  cited  are  from  the  last  two 
pages  of  the  book.  She  saw  no  connection  between  my 
questions  and  her  dream,  but  took  my  "irrelevant  ques- 
tioning" as  further  evidence  of  my  ignorance  of  dream 
analysis.  I  was  inquisitive  to  know  whether  she  would 
discover  the  connection  between  the  dream  and  the  story 
in  the  book,  but  despite  all  my  leading  up  to  it  I  was  finally 
forced  to  call  her  attention  to  it.  This  was  followed  by  a 
mingled  reaction  of  shame  and  laughter,  lasting  for  a  few 
moments,  and  ending  by  her  remarking,  "And  shall  I  add 
that  I  took  a  dose  of  calomel  before  retiring,  and  was 
awakened  by  it. 

Now,  let  us  consider  the  psychologic  principles  that 
gave  rise  to  this  dream.  On  the  day  preceding  the  dream 
I  had  a  long  discussion  with  the  patient  about  certain  sexual 
experiences  of  her  life.  She  refused  to  give  me  any  informa- 
tion beyond  what  her  physician  wrote  me.  Although 
married  for  years  and  the  mother  of  a  few  children,  she 
looked  upon  sex  with  the  greatest  disgust.  The  very  word 
was  disagreeable  and  nauseous  to  her.  From  her  physician 
I  learned  that  for  some  time  after  marriage  she  evinced  an 
abhorrence  to  any  intimate  relations  with  her  husband. 
Later  she  became  more  tolerant,  but  always  became  hys- 


188  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

terical  over  it,  and  always  expressed  her  disgust  for  it. 
In  brief,  she  was  a  marked  natura  frigida,  and  evinced  a 
typical  infantile  sexuality.  She  had  an  enormous  craving 
for  affection,  she  loved  to  be  fondled  and  petted  by  her 
husband,  and  stated  that  she  would  be  perfectly  happy  in  her 
married  life  if  only  sex  would  not  come  in.  When  I  tried  to 
to  have  her  go  into  details  about  a  definite  phase  of  her 
history  she  refused  to  do  so  because  it  touched  upon  sex. 
She  made  a  great  many  efforts,  but  I  saw  that  she  really 
could  not  continue.  I  anticipated  some  of  her  thoughts  and 
told  them  to  her.  She  was  very  much  impressed,  and  re- 
marked :  "  Why  don't  you  tell  me  every  thing  if  you  know  it  ? 
I  wish  you  would  talk  instead  of  asking  me  questions."  I 
retorted  that  it  was  necessary  that  she  should  do  the  talking 
herself.  She  agreed  to  do  so  the  next  day,  as  our  session  was 
then  at  an  end.  It  was  shortly  after  she  left  me  that  she 
read  the  part  of  the  book  which  I  have  cited. 

What  were  the  psychologic  mechanisms  that  entered 
into  the  formation  of  this  dream?  When  the  patient  left 
me  she  debated  with  herself  whether  or  not  to  reveal  to  me 
what  she  called  the  disagreeable  part  of  herself.  She 
reflected  over  some  of  the  thoughts  that  she  would  have  to 
disclose  and  could  not  make  up  her  mind  to  tell  them. 
This  struggle  continued  throughout  the  day,  but  now  and 
then  it  was  crowded  out  from  consciousness  by  other 
thoughts.  On  falling  asleep  this  stream  of  thought,  endowed 
with  so  much  interest,  though  dulled  by  the  desire  to  sleep, 
nevertheless  retained  some  of  its  activity.  Experience  in 
dream  analysis  teaches  that  in  order  to  form  a  dream  the 
stream  of  thought  in  question  must  succeed  in  arousing 
and  in  forming  a  connection  with  one  of  the  unconscious 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    FACTORS    IN   THE    NEUROSES       189 

repressed  tendencies  from  childhood.  It  is  through  this 
reinforced  energy  that  this  stream  of  thought,  or  day  rem- 
nant, attains  sufficient  force  to  reach  consciousness  in  the 
form  of  a  dream.  The  patient's  dream  was  the  expression 
of  the  wish  to  disclose  to  me  that  part  of  herself  which  was 
under  very  strong  repression  and  suppression.  The  deter- 
minant of  the  dream  was  the  conflict  of  the  previous  daj'- 
about  her  hidden  sexuality,  which  continued  its  activity 
during  sleep  and  aroused  anj''  number  of  associations  from 
early  life.  Once  the  connection  was  formed,  the  thoughts 
obtruded  themselves  upon  consciousness,  as  in  the  dream; 
but  the  vigilance  of  the  psychic  censor  is  plainly  visible: 
The  story  she  had  read  the  day  before  impressed  her  very 
much  because  it  showed  the  futility  and  ridiculousness 
of  prudishness,  and  because  it  expressed  the  identical  ideas 
that  entered  into  our  discussion.  The  dream,  therefore, 
makes  use  of  the  beautiful  formula,  "to  pick  flowers,"  in 
order  to  hide  a  contrasting  idea  "to  ease  Nature."  As  I  said 
before,  our  patient  was  altogether  infantile  in  her  sexuality. 
She  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  adult  sexuality  when  she 
married.  She  made  no  distinction  between  the  vagina 
and  anus  (Freud's  cloaca  theory) ;  both  were  equally  ta- 
booed, hence  to  ease  Nature  was  equivalent  to  a  sexual  act. 
The  allusion  in  the  dream  to  something  immoral  and  forbid- 
den is  nicely  expressed  by  the  fast  that  she  was  not  merely 
going  to  pick  flowers,  but  to  steal  them.  The  man  in  the 
dream  was  myself;  I  discovered  her  sexuality,  audit  was  from 
me  that  she  was  trying  to  run  away.  At  the  same  time  this 
expresses  the  wish  to  be  detected  and  seen,  which  goes  back 
to  the  wish  expressed  the  day  before  that  I  should  tell  her  all 
that  was  to  be  known  of  sex,  and  not  ask  her  any  questions. 


190  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

and  to  a  marked  childhood  exhibitionism  and  immorality 
which  later  gave  the  reaction  of  extreme  bashfulness  and 
prudery.  I  might  add  that  this  dream  nicely  illustrates  the 
part  played  by  an  organic  stimulus.  When  the  patient  first 
told  me  the  dream,  she  purposely  omitted  that  she  was 
awakened  by  the  griping  of  the  calomel  and  had  to  empty 
her  bowels.  It  was  only  after  I  called  her  attention  to  the 
meaning  of  flower  picking  that  she  corroborated  my  inter- 
pretation by  telling  me  the  part  played  by  the  dose  of 
calomel.  As  can  be  seen,  there  was  an  effort  to  render 
harmless  the  stimulus,  the  griping,  as  a  sleep  disturber. 
This  is  always  the  case  in  all  the  so-called  convenience 
or  laziness  dreams,^  where  the  sensory  stimuli  are  taken 
up  by  the  dream  and  woven  into  a  wish.  As  a  rule,  however, 
such  dreams  are  undisguised.  Here  the  disguise  was  essen- 
tial and  followed  the  tendencies  of  the  patient's  mental 
make-up.  The  consciousness  of  the  real  meaning  of  the 
dream  would  have  been  very  disagreeable,  and  throughout 
her  whole  life  she  was  accustomed  to  invest  everything  with 
a  poetic  atmosphere. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  dream  and  its  interpretation,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  different  stages  of  the  whole  process  were 
the  following:  (1)  A  mental  stream  produced  during  the 
day;  (2)  a  subsequent  forgetfulness  of  the  same;  and  (3)  its 
reappearance  in  consciousness  in  a  disguised  form  in  the 
dream.  The  last  stage — the  dream — is  totally  foreign  or,  we 
may  say,  unconscious  to  the  patient.  In  other  words,  the 
original  thoughts  or  impressions  underwent  a  certain  change 
before  they  reappeared  in  the  dream,  and  the  only  way  to 
find  their  meaning  was  by  comparing  them  with  the  latent 
thoughts.     The  latter,  though  unconscious  to  the  patient. 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    FACTORS   IN    THE    NEUROSES       191 

were,  nevertheless,  the  active  elements  of  the  dream.  This 
mechanism  shows  the  striking  analogy  to  the  so-called 
"posthypnotic  suggestions."  As  we  know,  Bernheim  and 
others  do  this  experiment  in  the  following  manner:  A  person 
is  hypnotized,  and  while  in  this  state  ordered  by  the  doctor 
to  perform  a  certain  task  at  the  expiration  of  a  certain  time 
after  awakening.  He  is  then  awakened  and  is  in  normal 
condition;  he  has  no  recollection  of  his  hypnotic  state,  and 
yet  at  the  appointed  time  he  is  seized  with  an  impulse  to  per- 
form the  task  assigned  to  him  and  he  does  it  consciously  and 
rationally  without  knowing  why.  When  questioned  about 
it  he  usually  finds  some  excuse  for  his  action.  Here  it  must 
be  said  that  the  order  had  been  present  in  the  mind  of  the 
person  in  a  latent  or  unconscious  state  until  the  designated 
time,  and  then  suddenly  merged  to  consciousness.  In 
normal  life  this  is  noticed  in  such  actions  as  mailing  letters, 
etc.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  not  everything  comes  to  the 
surface.  Thus  the  command,  the  influence  of  the  doctor, 
the  recollection  of  the  hypnotic  state  remains  unconscious — 
all  that  is  remembered  is  the  idea  of  the  act  to  be  performed. 
Moreover,  the  idea  of  the  action  ordered  in  the  hypnotic 
state  not  only  becomes  conscious  at  a  given  time,  but  it  also 
becomes  active  as  soon  as  it  reaches  consciousness.  But 
as  the  real  stimulus  to  the  action  was  the  order  of  the  physi- 
cian, it  must  be  conceded  that  the  idea  of  the  physician's 
order  became  active,  too;  but  as  it  remains  unconscious 
we  are  justified  in  saying  that  it  was  active  and  unconscious 
at  the  same  time.' 

The  fact  of  posthypnotic  suggestions  finds  full  corrobora- 
tion in  the  works  of  Pierre  Janet,  Breuer  and  Freud,  Morton 
Prince,  and  others.     All  these  investigators  found  that  hys- 


192  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

terical  patients  evince  many  active  yet  unconscious  mecha- 
nisms. This  has  been  especially  demonstrated  by  Freud 
and  his  school.  In  our  psychoanalytic  work  we  always 
find  that  the  psychoneurotic  symptoms  are  governed  by 
motives  of  which  the  patient  is  entirely  unconscious.  Thus, 
I  have  reported  two  patients  who  went  through  major  and 
minor  hysterical  attacks,  lasting  from  a  few  hours  to  days, 
which  on  analysis  proved  to  be  unconscious  reactions  to 
former  erotic  experiences  and  episodes.^  Such  patients 
prove  with  complete  certainty  the  existence  of  an  uncon- 
scious activity,  which  is  largely  made  up  of  infantile  erotic 
wish  feelings  which  experienced  repression  during  the 
developmental  period  of  childhood.  In  all  cases  fully 
analyzed  one  finds  an  infantile  stage  evincing  a  polymor- 
phous perverse  sexuality,  a  repression  or  emotional  trans- 
formation during  the  developmental  period  of  childhood — a 
return  and  a  revival  of  the  latter,  either  as  a  consequence 
of  the  sexual  constitution  or  in  consequence  of  unfavorable 
influences  of  the  sexual  life.  To  illustrate  such  unconscious 
activity  I  will  cite  the  following  case: 

J.  L.,  thirty-three  years  old,  single,  drug  salesman,  was  referred  to 
me  for  treatment  by  Dr.  Beverly  R.  Tucker,  in  the  beginning  of  April, 
1911.  The  patient  had  been  an  active  sufferer  since  1904,  the  main 
symptom  being  a  mysophobia.  A  letter  written  by  Doctor  Tucker 
reads:  "About  five  years  ago  he  got  into  the  habit  of  washing  his  hands 
very  freqently.  This  dirt  phobia  has  expanded  until  now  he  is 
afraid  to  touch  almost  anything  for  fear  of  transmitting  poison  or  filth 
in  an  infinitesimal  amount  to  himself  or  some  other  person."  The 
patient  was  almost  entirely  incapacitated  by  his  neurosis.  He  could 
do  nothing  without  getting  into  trouble.  He  was  afraid  to  touch  any- 
thing that  had  any  dust  on  it.  If  he  noticed  spots  on  his  clothes  he 
immediately  washed  his  hands  over  and  over  agaui  because  he  imag- 
ined that  he  had  touched  them.     He  would  get  into  a  state  of  excite- 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    FACTORS    IN    THE    NEUROSES       193 

ment  over  it,  which  manifested  itself  in  anxiety  and  perspiration. 
His  hands  were  almost  always  wet  with  perspiration.  He  was  espe- 
cially worried  by  poisons,  and,  having  been  a  drug  salesman,  he  saw 
poison  in  everything.  Thus,  he  did  not  use  a  match  for  years  because 
matches  contain  phosphorus  or  sulphur.  When  he  wanted  to  light  a 
cigar  he  always  managed  to  do  it  in  some  other  way.  Usually  he  went 
into  cigar  stores,  where  one  can  always  find  a  cigar  hghter.  When  a 
box  of  matches  was  left  in  his  room  he  became  very  much  excited  over 
it,  asked  the  maid  to  remove  it,  and  had  the  spot  scrubbed  and 
cleaned.  On  the  other  hand,  he  carried  in  his  pocket  a  silver  match- 
box containing  matches  which  he  never  used,  and  which  was  a  con- 
stant source  for  new  phobias.  His  phobia  for  odors  was  just  as 
marked.  When  he  first  came  to  New  York  he  lived  in  a  hotel,  and  on 
entering  his  room  one  afternoon  he  perceived  a  pecuhar  odor.  He 
inquired  about  it,  and  was  told  that  the  floors  were  cleaned  with  some 
preparation  containing  carboUc  acid.  This  caused  him  to  leave  the 
hotel;  he  was  in  fear  lest  his  coat  might  have  touched  the  floor,  taken 
up  some  of  the  poison,  and  transmitted  it  to  others.  He  was  afraid 
to  pass  certain  sides  of  the  street  because  he  noticed  a  paint  shop 
there;  paint  suggested  lead,  which  he  knew  was  a  poison.  He  would 
not  touch  any  metallic  door-knob  because  it  might  contain  some 
"canker"  which  he  thought  was  especially  f>oisonous — by  canker  he 
meant  the  greenish  substance  one  often  finds  on  exposed  metals. 
It  was  for  this  reason,  too,  that  he  found  it  hard  to  drink  water  coming 
from  the  hydrant.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  main  phobias  which 
constantly  obsessed  the  patient.  Here  I  simply  wish  to  point  out 
the  various  stages  in  the  development  of  this  mysophobia,  tracing 
it  throughout  the  patient's  life. 

It  was  during  the  analysis  of  psychoneurotics  that  Freud's 
attention  was  first  called  to  dreams,  the  psychology  of  which 
he  has  later  studied  and  developed.  At  present,  however,  it 
may  be  asserted  that  psychoanalysis  is  founded  upon  the 
analysis  of  dreams,  as  dream  analysis  is  the  most  finished 
part  of  psychoanalytic  investigation.  It  was  for  this  reason 
that  I  began  with  the  analysis  of  a  dream  when  I  wished 
to  demonstrate  the  unconscious  elements  in  the  neuroses. 

13 


194  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Like  the  dream,  these  phobias  seem  absurd  and  strange  to 
the  patient  and  the  outsider;  yet,  as  in  the  dream,  the  enig- 
matic absurdities  and  the  exaggerated  emotions  disappear 
as  soon  as  the  analysis  is  completed. 

Starting,  therefore,  with  the  formula  that  "the  neurosis  is,  so  to 
speak,  the  negative  of  the  perversion,"^  I  investigated  the  patient's 
infantile  life.  I  shall  mention  here  only  those  elements  that  are 
absolutely  essential  to  explain  the  phobia.  I  found  that  the  patient's 
childhood  was  characterized  by  the  usual  polymorphous  perverse 
sexuality,  but  that  instead  of  undergoing  the  usual  repression  it 
continued  throughout  the  whole  latency  period.  From  his  eary  child- 
hood he  displayed  a  very  strong  aggressive  activity  in  his  sexual  life. 
As  far  as  he  could  recall  he  indulged  in  sexual  looking,  despite  frequent 
punishment.  He  displayed  a  strong  desire  for  coprophihc  activities. 
He  took  an  unusual  interest  in  feces  and  urine,  he  liked  the  odor  of 
water-closets,  and  one  of  his  favorite  indulgences  was  to  put  his 
finger  between  his  sweating  toes  and  then  smell  them.  He  was  often 
punished  for  these  acts  by  both  parents,  and  especially  his  father. 
He  began  to  masturbate  long  before  the  age  of  puberty,  and  his 
first  love  affair  began  between  ten  and  eleven.  In  brief,  there  was  no 
latency  period  to  speak  of — all  the  infantile  activities  were  continued 
to  adult  life,  with  only  little  conflict.  However,  a  reaction  took  place 
and  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  he  began  to  be  troubled  with  all  sorts 
of  religious  and  moral  conflicts,  and  he  also  became  very  neat  in 
his  appearance.  He  led  what  he  called  a  pure  life  in  every  way 
until  the  age  of  nineteen,  when  he  consorted  with  a  prostitute.  This 
was  followed  by  many  reproaches,  so  that  he  had  very  few  such 
experiences  thereafter.  His  neurosis  really  began  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  when  he  was  very  scrupulous,  very  moral,  and  very 
conscientious.  I  may  add  that  throughout  his  whole  life  he  evinced 
a  very  strong  attachment  for  his  mother.  Whatever  he  did  was 
for  his  mother;  he  was  guided  entirely  by  her  wishes.  For  his  father, 
who  died  when  he  was  about  fourteen,  he  entertained  absolutely 
no  regard;  on  the  contrary,  he  talked  about  him  in  a  contemptuous 
manner. 

To  translate  what  has  been  found  into  psychoanalytic  language,  we 
may  say  that  so  far  we  have  an  individual  of  normal  make-up  whose 


THE   UNCONSCIOUS   FACTORS   IN   THE   NEUROSES       195 

early  sexual  activities  were  accentuated  to  an  extent  that  there  was 
hardly  any  latency  period  such  as  one  finds  normally.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  correspondingly  strong  suppression  and  repression  in  adult 
life,  and  resulted  in  a  more  or  less  inhibited  life,  owing  to  his  incapacity 
to  subhmate  properly.  This  maladjustment  was  shown  in  a  great 
many  ways.  When  his  father  died  he  left  a  wholesale  and  retail  drug- 
store, the  management  of  which  he  later  undertook.  He  always 
disliked  the  drug  business,  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  duty  to  his 
mother  he  would  have  taken  up  something  else.  His  mother  was 
aware  of  his  feelings,  and  urged  him  to  adopt  some  other  occupation. 
He  made  many  attempts,  and  obtained  good  positions  in  which  he 
made  good,  but  always  had  to  return  home  and  resume  his  old 
work.  "I  felt  that  I  owed  it  to  my  mother;  it  was  my  love  for  her 
that  made  me  give  up  everything  else,"  he  said  when  discussing  this. 
His  love  and  regard  for  his  mother  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  she 
was  ailing  much  of  the  time,  and  because  she  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
with  the  other  children.  Thus,  his  older  brother,  to  whom  he  had 
looked  up  when  young,  turned  out  to  be  the  black  sheep  of  the  family. 
He  was  a  drunkard,  and  guilty  of  theft,  bigamy  and  desertion  from 
the  army.  To  add  more  mortification  for  his  mother  two  of  his  sisters 
eloped,  so  that  he,  always  having  been  his  mother's  favorite,  was  her 
only  consolation.  She  continually  urged  him  not  to  be  Uke  his  brother. 
He  promised  her  everything  and  tried  to  live  up  to  his  promises.  He 
got  along  fairly  well  until  the  following  episode  took  place:  In  1899  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  woman  who  tempted  him,  and  in  a 
moment  of  passion  he  once  touched  her  vulva.  He  was  immediately 
seized  with  remorse  and  fear.  He  thought  that  he  had  committed  a 
terrible  crime  against  his  mother.  He  had  the  impulse  to  go  and 
explain  everything  to  her  and  ask  her  forgiveness,  but  could  not  make 
up  his  mind  to  do  it.  Whenever  he  was  ready  to  make  the  confession 
he  thought  of  the  great  worry  that  it  would  cause  her,  and  so  refrained 
from  doing  it. 

For  a  period  of  about  five  years  he  apparently  suffered  from  a  mild 
mixed  neurosis.  He  was  obsessed  by  the  idea  that  he  might  be  shot  by 
this  woman's  father  or  brother  for  having  insulted  her,  and  showed 
many  other  neurotic  symptoms.  His  mother's  condition  grew  worse, 
as  she  had  cancer  of  the  liver,  and  he  was  with  her  a  great  deal. 
During  the  last  days  of  her  life  she  often  admonished  him  to  lead  a 
clean,  upright  life.     It  was  shortly  before  she  died,  in  1904,  that  he 


196  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

began  to  show  the  hand-washing  mania  which  expanded  later  into  the 
other  phobias.  What  happened  may  be  described  as  follows :  The  sexual 
libido,  active  during  childhood  and  adult  life,  was  suddenly  repressed. 
Now  and  then  there  was  an  attempt  at  readjustment  of  his  libido 
through  some  erotic  experience  in  the  form  of  a  love  affair  or  gross 
sexual  experience.  Occasionally,  he  would  go  out  with  his  friends 
and  drink  and  carouse.  Such  experiences  were  always  followed  by 
terrible  reproaches,  as  they  were  incompatible  with  his  reUgious  and 
ethical  training  inculcated  by  his  mother.  Continuing  in  the  drug 
business  despite  his  dislike  for  it,  he  was  unable  to  sublimate  his  sex 
energy  on  something  higher.  All  his  libido  was,  therefore,  centered 
on  his  mother;  she  was  his  ideal  in  every  respect,  the  only  person  he 
could  love.  All  his  attempted  love  affairs  turned  out  failures. 
The  high  tide  of  libido  which  became  detached  with  his  mother's 
death,  therefore,  caused  a  regressive  revival  of  his  auto-erotic  sexual- 
ity.® He  could  find  no  outlet  elsewhere,  hence  he  had  to  resort  to 
himself.  But  as  his  auto-erotic  sexuaUty  dealt  with  coprophilic 
activities,  which  were  entirely  incompatible  with  his  present  ego, 
they  had  to  manifest  themselves  in  a  negative  form.  Had  they  re- 
turned in  their  original  form  he  would  have  suffered  from  perversions. 
The  motive  power  of  the  phobia  was,  therefore,  the  repressed  hbido, 
while  the  determinants  were  furnished  by  actual  occurrences  at  the 
time  of  the  onset.  Thus,  the  hand-washing  signified  a  moral  stain, 
and  was  determined  by  the  touching  of  the  vulva.  The  usual  general- 
ization then  took  place,  and  the  patient  feared  all  stains,  and,  by  a 
form  of  rationalization  (as  fitly  expressed  by  Ernest  Jones),  he  thought 
that  he  feared  the  stains  because  they  represented  drugs  and  poisons. 
The  phobia  for  "canker"  appeared  after  his  mother  died,  and  was 
simply  a  sound  association  of  cancer.  The  immediate  onset  of  the 
symptoms  was  probably  helped  by  the  fact  that  for  days  before  she 
died  his  mother's  stools  were  very  offensive. 

The  morbid  gain  of  the  disease  was  twofold:  First,  it  served  as  a 
sexual  gratification  and  represented  some  components  of  his  sexual 
life;^  second,  it  took  him  away  from  the  occupation  he  disUked. 

These  analyses  serve  to  show  the  part  played  by  the  unconscious 
activity  in  the  neuroses;  they  amply  demonstrate  the  futihty  of  the  old 
Anschauungen  in  the  examination  and  treatment  of  the  psycho- 
neuroses.  This  patient  was  treated  for  years  by  the  orthodox  methods. 
He  received  his  share  of  medicines  and  rest-cures  at  home  and  in  sana- 


THE   UNCONSCIOUS   FACTORS   IN   THE   NEUROSES       197 

toriums  without  the  sUghtest  improvement.  He  was  with  me  about 
five  months  when  I  discharged  him  as  cured.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  Doctor  Tucker  during  his  recent  visit  to  New  York,  and  I  was 
gratified  to  hear  that  the  patient  was  perfectly  well.  Last  January 
the  patient  himself  paid  me  a  social  visit  while  here  on  business.  I 
found  him  to  be  in  perfect  health,  showing  absolutely  no  trace  of  his 
former  trouble.  While  talking  to  me  he  remarked  that  he  was  no 
longer  in  the  drug  business,  and  for  the  moment  I  was  somewhat 
shocked;  but  he  anticipated  my  thoughts  and  laughingly  said:  "No, 
it  was  not  on  account  of  phobias  that  I  gave  it  up;  I  did  not  dare  give 
it  up  while  I  was  sick,  but  since  getting  well  I  thought  I  could  do  much 
better  in  some  other  business,  and  I  finally  found  something  that  is 
much  more  lucrative  than  selling  drugs."  I  was  both  surprised  and 
interested  to  hear  that  he  was  selling  perfumes — a  compromise  form- 
ation serving  a  useful  purpose  which  throws  some  hght  on  the  psy- 
chology of  trade  selection.' 

Now,  I  have  been  asked  repeatedly  how  psychoanalysis 
cures.  The  last  questioner  argued:  "Suppose  I  grant  you 
that  this  means  that  and  that  that  means  this,  how  is  the 
patient  cured?"  To  answer  this  question  I  related  a  story 
which  I  shall  here  repeat.  A  German  professor  of  astronomy 
invited  his  colleagues  to  take  luncheon  with  him.  After 
the  cigars  were  served  he  asked  them  to  accompany  him  to 
his  garden,  of  which  he  was  very  proud.  In  European  gar- 
dens one  often  sees  hollow  iridescent  glass  globes  placed  on 
sticks  between  the  bushes.  While  walking,  one  of  the 
guests,  a  professor  of  physics,  happened  to  touch  one  of  these 
globes  and  was  surprised  to  find  it  very  hot.  What  puzzled 
him  was  the  fact  that  the  heat  was  not  on  the  side  heated 
by  the  sun,  but  on  the  opposite  side.  On  touching  the  other 
side  he  found  it  comparatively  cool.  He  called  his  col- 
league's attention  to  this  phenomenon  and  asked  them  to 
explain  it.  The  discussion  that  followed  first  became 
very  animated,  and  then  even  personal.     As  soon  as  one 


198  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

offered  a  theory  it  was  disproved  by  the  others.  Not  one 
of  these  learned  men  could  explain  this  phenomenon. 
While  they  were  thus  quarrelling  the  gardener  approached 
unobserved,  and,  upon  discovering  the  dispute,  turned  to  the 
host,  and  said:  "Professor,  just  before  you  came  here  with 
the  gentlemen  I  turned  the  globe  around.  I  do  this  every 
day  at  this  time. " 

Of  course,  the  arguments  and  quarrels  ceased  in  a  trice; 
there  was  nothing  left  to  dispute  about.  Had  the  gardener 
not  made  his  appearance,  would  these  learned  men  have 
ever  settled  the  problem?  Surely  not.  The  energy  that 
they  were  trying  so  hard  to  explain  away  did  not  belong 
there — it  was  displaced.  We  may  say  the  same  of  the 
phobias  and  obsessions,  the  exaggerated  afifect  is  justified  in 
its  right  place,  but  it  does  not  belong  to  the  symptom.  The 
gardener  has  turned  the  globe  around. 

References 

1.  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria,  3d  ed.,  p.  213. 

2.  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  104. 

3.  Freud:  A  Note  on  the  Unconscious  in  Psychoanalysis;  The  Society 
for  Psychic  Research,  Part  LXIV,  Vol.  XXIV. 

4.  Cf.  pp.  311-317. 

5.  Freud:  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  p.  38. 

6.  Cf.  pp.  275  and  287. 

7.  Freud:  Selected  Papers,  p.  198. 

8.  C/.  p.  63. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PSYCHOANALYSIS  AND  THE  PSYCHOSES 

The  Work  of  the  Zurich  School — the  Association  Experi- 
ment— Complex  Theory — Mechanism  of 
Delusions  and  Hallucinations 

The  conclusions  reached  by  Freud  as  expressed  in  the 
theories  of  the  psychoneuroses,  dreams  and  the  psycho- 
pathology  of  everyday  life  were  fully  confirmed  by  the 
Zurich  school  after  a  thorough  investigation  on  the 
basis  of  experimental  psychology.  Stimulated  by  Bleuler, 
Jung,  Riklin^  and  others  collected  a  large  number  of  associ- 
ations from  noimal  persons  with  the  intention  of  finding  out, 
first  whether  there  existed  any  regularity  in  the  reactions 
and,  second,  whether  there  were  definite  reaction  types. 
They  soon  discovered  that  the  process  of  association  is  a 
very  flighty  and  variable  psychic  process  and  that  it  is 
beyond  the  hmits  of  the  objective  control.  They  also 
found  that  attention  plays  the  greatest  part  in  the  process 
of  association,  and  that  although  it  directs  and  modifies  the 
associative  process  it  can  nevertheless  be  most  readily 
controlled  experimentally.  They  therefore  decided  to 
investigate  experimentally  the  following  questions:  1. 
The  laws  of  fluctuation  in  associations  in  the  normal,  and 
2.  the  direct  effects  of  attention  on  the  process  of  association 
especially  whether  the  validity  of  association  diminishes 
relatively  with  the  distance  from  the  fixation  point  of 

consciousness. 

199 


200  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

They  examined  many  educated  and  uneducated  persons 
by  giving  them  a  hundred  stimulus  words  and  noting  the 
reactions.  The  reaction  time  was  measured  with  a  one- 
fifth  second  stop  watch.  The  second  series  of  experiments 
consisted  of  100  associations  with  internal  distraction. 
The  third  series  consisted  of  100  associations  taken  during 
external  distraction  by  means  of  a  metronome.  The 
results  obtained  from  12,400  associations  showed  many 
interesting  facts  of  which  only  few  will  interest  us  here. 

After  classifying  the  associations  it  was  found  that  there 
was  a  distinct  fluctuation  in  the  numerical  relations  of 
single  individuals.  The  main  reason  for  this  was  the 
intensity  of  attention,  which  accounted  for  the  fact  that 
some  reacted  with  inner  and  others  with  outer  associa- 
tions. It  was  found,  for  example,  that  although  every 
person  had  manifold  qualities  of  associations  at  his  dis- 
posal, the  reactions  elicited  nevertheless  depended  on  the 
degree  of  attention  evoked  by  the  stimulus  words.  Thus, 
whenever  the  test  person  was  distracted  he  always  reacted 
with  outer  and  sound  association  rather  than  with  inner 
associations,  i.e.,  he  followed  the  lines  of  least  resistance 
and  reacted  with  habitual  and  easy  speech  combinations. 
It  was  concluded  that  whenever  there  is  a  disturbance  of 
attention  one  must  expect  shallow  reaction  types  or  sound 
associations  and,  conversely,  whenever  one  finds  sound 
associations  one  must  presuppose  a  disturbance  of  attention. 

Without  entering  into  the  theoretical  part  of  associa- 
tions in  general,  I  will  now  show  the  practical  side  of  the 
work  as  it  is  applied  in  the  Clinic  of  Psychiatry  at  Zurich. 

One  hundred  words  are  usually  employed  for  analytic 
and  diagnostic  purposes.     They  are    designated     as    test 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES 


201 


words  and  were  selected  and  arranged  in  a  manner  to 
strike  almost  all  of  the  common  complexes.  The  test 
words  are  printed  in  rows  with  enough  side  space  for  the 
test  person's  answers  or  reactions.  The  experiment  is 
carried  out  with  the  test  person  sitting  in  front  of  the 
physician  who  calls  out  each  word  in  a  loud  and  clear 
voice,  measuring  at  the  same  time  with  a  one-fifth  of  a 
second  stop  watch  the  time  elapsing  between  the  utterance 
of  the  test  word  and  the  reaction  or  the  answer  from  the  test 
person.  The  average  reaction  time  is  generally  taken 
as  2.4  seconds.  Before  the  experiment  is  begun  the  test 
person  is  instructed  to  pay  attention  to  the  test  words  and 
answer  as  quickly  as  possible  the  first  word  that  comes  to 
his  mind.  The  answers,  as  well  as  the  reaction  time, 
are  carefully  noted  and  after  the  whole  list  has  been  gone 
through,  the  stimulus  words  are  repeated  and  the  patient 
is  asked  to  reproduce  the  original  answers  which  are  again 
noted.  Depending  on  the  case  in  question  some  special 
words  may  be  inserted,  but  as  a  rule  the  following  100 
words  are  used 


1.  head 

14. 

stem 

27. 

lamp 

2.  green 

15. 

to  dance 

28. 

to  sin 

3.  water 

16. 

village 

29. 

bread 

4.  to  sing 

17. 

lake 

30. 

rich 

5.  dead 

18. 

sick 

31. 

tree 

6.  long 

19. 

pride 

32. 

to  prick 

7.  ship 

20. 

table 

33. 

pity 

8.  to  pay 

21. 

ink 

34. 

yellow 

9.  window 

22. 

angry 

35. 

mountain. 

10.  friendly 

23. 

needle 

36. 

to  die 

11.  to  cook 

24. 

to  swim 

37. 

salt 

12.  to  ask 

25. 

voyage 

38. 

new 

13.  cold 

26. 

blue 

39. 

custom 

202 


PSYCHOANALYSIS 


40.  to  pray 

41.  money 

42.  foolish 

43.  pamphlet 

44.  despise 

45.  finger 

46.  expensive 

47.  bird 

48.  to  fall 

49.  book 

50.  unjust 

51.  frog 

52.  to  part 

53.  hunger 

54.  white 

55.  child 

56.  to  take  care 

57.  lead  pencil 
68.  sad 

59.  plum 

60.  to  marry 


61.  house 

62.  dear 

63.  glass 

64.  to  quarrel 

65.  fur 

66.  big 

67.  carrot 

68.  to  paint 

69.  part 

70.  old 

71.  flower 

72.  to  beat 

73.  box 

74.  wild 

75.  family 

76.  to  wash 

77.  cow 

78.  friend 

79.  luck 

80.  lie 

81.  deportment 


82.  narrow 

83.  brother 

84.  to  fear 

85.  stork 

86.  false 

87.  anxiety 

88.  to  kiss 

89.  bride 

90.  pure 

91.  door 

92.  to  choose 

93.  hay 

94.  contented 

95.  ridicule 

96.  to  sleep 

97.  month 

98.  nice 

99.  woman 
100.  to  abuse 


Now  it  would  seem  that  any  intelligent  person  could 
give  a  fluent  answer  to  any  of  these  words  but  one  soon 
becomes  convinced  that  such  is  not  the  case.  As  one 
proceeds  with  the  experiment  he  finds  that  not  all  stimulus 
words  are  reacted  to  with  the  same  smoothness  and 
facilit5^  In  his  "Association  method "^  Jung  shows  that 
all  apparently  adventitious  mistakes  in  the  association 
experiment  have  a  definite  reason  and  that  contrary  to 
the  belief  of  the  test  person  his  answers  are  not  at  all 
arbitrary,  but  generally  betray  his  inmost  secrets.  Hence 
whenever  we  find  any  impediments  in  the  experiment  such 
as  a  prolonged  reaction  time,  a  lack  of,  or  a  faulty  reaction, 
a  repetition  of  the  stimulus  words  or  a  failure  of  repro- 
duction we  have  a  complex  indicator.     That  is,  the  mis- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  203 

take  indicates  that  the  stimulus  word  has  touched  a  com- 
plex* and  thus  retarded  or  completely  inhibited  the  reaction. 
The  value  of  this  experiment  is  quite  obvious.  Whereas 
the  patient  may  refuse  to  enter  into  conversation  about 
his  morbid  productions  he  is  usually  quite  willing  to  cooper- 
ate in  the  experiment.  He  sees  no  harm  in  answering  the 
first  word  evoked  by  the  stimulus  as  he  is  entirely  unaware 
of  its  import.  Some  think  it  is  a  "sort  of  game"  which  has 
no  bearing  on  their  condition.  But  as  soon  as  a  few  com- 
plexes are  found  and  the  association  correctly  interpreted 
the  patient  readily  recognizes  the  superiority  of  the  examiner 
and  generally  talks  freely.  As  I  will  show  later  this  is 
not  as  simple  as  it  may  seem.  To  illustrate  the  actual 
work  I  will  cite  the  following  cases: 

Case  I. — I.  S.,  set.  thirty-nine,  single,  bank  official,  was  transferred 
to  the  psychiatric  clinic  of  Zurich,  November  16,  1907,  from  the 
Bohemian  asylum  of  D.  where  he  had  been  for  about  four  months. 
From  the  abstract  we  learned  that  the  patient  went  through  an  acute 
attack  lasting  only  a  few  weeks.  He  was  markedly  confused  and 
hallucinatory,  but  gradually  improved.  He  had  not,  however 
regained  any  insight  into  his  condition  and  still  entertained  numerous 
false  ideas. 

On  admission  he  was  orderly  and  well  behaved.  He  seemed  to  take 
a  lively  interest  in  things,  but  was  inclined  to  be  seclusive  and  uncom- 
municative. When  drawn  into  conversation  he  gave  a  fair  account 
of  his  experiences,  but  now  and  then  he  only  vaguely  intimated  things, 
absolutely  refusing  to  enter  into  details.  His  orientation  was  perfect, 
no  hallucinations  of  any  kind  could  be  elicited,  though  he  showed  no 
insight  into  his  condition.  Physically,  besides  diminished  knee-jerks, 
nothing  abnormal  could  be  found.  He  gave  a  fluent  account  of  his 
vita  anteacta  and  only  here  and  there  was  it  necessary  to  question  him. 

*The  word  is  used  in  the  sense  designated  by  the  Zurich  school, 
i.e.,  as  a  complex  of  ideas  of  marked  emotional  accentuation  which 
was  split  off  from  consciousness  and  repressed  into  the  unconscious. 


204  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

He  stated  that  he  was  born  in  W.  near  Zurich.  His  mother  was  an 
invaUd  for  years.  She  suffered  from  some  "nervous  trouble"  and 
died  when  he  was  about  ten  years  old.  His  father,  an  octogenarian, 
was  still  living.  He  knew  nothing  about  the  other  members  of  his 
family  for  since  his  eleventh  year  he  had  been  brought  up  among 
strangers.  Up  to  his  sixteenth  year  he  was  under  the  guidance  of  a 
clergyman  who  brought  him  up  very  religiously.  He  attended  school 
up  to  his  seventeenth  year  when  he  began  his  business  career  and  since 
his  twentieth  year  he  had  worked  in  the  bank  at  B.  He  saw  his  father 
quite  frequently  up  to  1903  when  there  was  a  disagreement  between 
them  ending  in  a  complete  estrangement.  When  asked  about  the 
cause  of  this  quarrel  he  at  first  refused  to  speak  of  it,  but  on  being 
urged  he  said:  "The  last  time  my  father  was  in  B.  I  told  him  that  I 
would  hke  to  marry  my  landlady,  a  widow,  in  whose  house  I  Uved  for 
more  than  seven  years.  He  strongly  objected  and  threatened  to 
disown  me  should  I  disobey  him.  He  also  upbraided  me  for  my 
mode  of  living.  He  is  very  religious  and  antisemitic  while  I  was  an 
agnostic  and  worked  among  Jews  for  eighteen  years.  I  reminded 
him  that  I  was  old  enough  to  follow  my  own  inclinations  and  so 
we  parted.  Since  then  I  have  written  to  him  a  number  of  times,  but 
all  my  letters  have  been  returned  to  me." 

His  psychosis  he  described  as  follows:  "I  was  always  well  until  the 
beginning  of  February,  when  I  suddenly  became  thoughtful.  I  did 
not  sleep  well  and  was  very  nervous.  On  February  3,  1907,  at 
7  p.  M.,  I  was  alone  in  my  room  when  I  began  to  feel  a  strange  power 
influencing  me.  I  felt  ecstatic,  but  I  knew  that  there  was  something 
peculiar  in  me.  It  was  like  an  electric  magnetic  p>ower  or  ether.  It 
suddenly  forced  me  down  on  the  floor  on  my  left  knee.  My  hands 
were  pressed  together  in  an  attitude  of  prayer  and  with  great  force 
I  cried  out:  'Lord,  have  mercy  on  suffering  humanity.'  I  spoke 
with  a  stentorian  voice  like  a  preacher.  I  repeated  the  'Our  Father' 
hundreds  of  times.  I  felt  an  influence  of  the  Egyptian  gods  Isis  and 
Osiris.  I  was  also  forced  to  repeat  numerous  times  'Am  I  Parisfal, 
the  guileless  fool?'  (Parisfal  reinster  Thor).  This  state  continued 
for  seventy-two  hours  during  which  I  did  not  sleep  at  all.  I  also 
imagined  that  I  was  very  wealthy.  The  whole  thing  was  like  a  colos- 
sal suggestive  influence  and  the  Jews  played  some  part  in  it.  After 
four  days  I  got  out  of  bed  and  took  a  walk  which  refreshed  me,  but 
I  caught  a  cold  which  continued  for  six  weeks.     During  that  time  I 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND   THE    PSYCHOSES  205 

was  under  the  magic  of  a  peculiar  suggestive  inspiration  in  which  the 
Jews  played  a  great  part." 

Asked  whether  he  heard  voices  talking  to  him  he  stated  that  he 
heard  none  during  the  first  crisis.  "It  was  only  a  magnetic  suggestive 
force."  Continuing,  he  said:  "I  then  wrote  a  letter  to  my  firm  with 
whom  I  had  been  for  eighteen  years,  teUing  them  that  my  present 
views  did  not  permit  me  to  work  for  a  Jewish  firm.  Following  an 
inspiration  I  went  to  Lucarno  where  I  remained  until  April  5.  I  then 
returned  to  B.  and  in  order  to  recover  completely  I  went  to  a  country 
place  near  the  sea  where  I  remained  for  five  weeks.  In  June  I  went 
to  see  my  father,  who  lived  in  K.,  Bohemia,  but  was  not  permitted 
to  see  him  as  his  doctor  forbade  it,  saying  he  was  too  sick.  I  could 
not  believe  that  the  doctor  told  me  the  truth.  It  was  certainly 
remarkable  that  my  old  father  should  estrange  himself  in  such  a 
manner  from  his  only  son.  At  the  end  of  June  I  was  offered  a  position 
in  Munich,  but  when  I  arrived  there  I  found  that  the  head  of  the  firm 
was  a  Jew  so  I  refused  it.  On  July  14,  a  letter  sent  to  my  father  was 
returned  marked  'Moved.  Address  unknown.'  I  again  became 
excited  and  felt  the  peculiar  suggestive  inspirations.  Such  inspira- 
tions were  never  in  me  before  and  probably  had  their  reasons.  .  . 
I  again  went  to  K.,  arriving  there  on  July  16.  My  father's  residence 
was  locked  and  the  neighbors  told  me  that  he  had  moved  to  D.  I 
decided  to  follow  up  my  investigations  the  next  morning,  but  'Man 
proposes  and  God  disposes.'  I  passed  a  fearful  night.  I  was  con- 
tinually under  influences.  I  dreamed  that  I  cUmbed  a  high  mountain 
or  mountains  and  all  of  a  sudden  I  became  'like  nailed'  and  I  could 
not  move  any  further.  I  was  afraid  of  falling  and  was  extremely 
terrified.  At  dawn  I  arose  and  decided  to  take  a  walk  in  the  forest, 
but  no  sooner  did  I  leave  the  hotel  when  I  suddenly  heard  a  voice  in 
my  ears.  I  looked  about  alarmed,  but  saw  no  one.  The  voice 
asked  me  peculiar  questions  and  gave  still  stranger  commands.  It 
was  something  like  telepathy.  I  almost  lost  my  mind.  I  noticed 
two  poUcemen  and  I  appealed  to  them  for  protection.  They  took 
me  to  the  police  station  and  then  I  only  faintly  recollect  being  taken 
to  a  hospital  in  a  cab.  I  was  in  an  unconscious,  pecuhar,  feverish 
state.  I  heard  voices  constantly,  but  they  were  very  indistinct.  I 
saw  silhouettes  like  bluish  angeUc  forms.  I  saw  my  father.  He  was 
God  and  I  was  the  Son,  and  Superintendent  R.  was  the  Holy  Ghost. 
I  was  in  that  condition  for  about  one  week  and  then  I  recovered  my 


206  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

senses.  They  then  sent  me  to  the  asylum  in  D.  and  on  November 
16  I  was  transferred  here." 

The  last  part  of  the  patient's  statements  concurs  with  the  hospital 
records  from  D.  He  finished  by  paraphrasing  Hamlet,  "There  are 
more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  doctor,  than  are  dreamt  of  in  your 
psychiatry." 

An  attempt  was  made  to  have  the  patient  explain  some  of  the 
individual  points,  but  he  became  diplomatic  and  suspicious,  saying 
that  he  had  told  everything  to  the  best  of  his  ability  and  that  he 
really  could  not  remember  any  more.  Besides  he  was  sure  that  no 
doctor  could  understand  this  or  explain  it  to  him,  that  he  was  perfectly 
well  now  and  only  wished  to  be  discharged  so  that  he  might  go  and 
see  his  old  father.  When  asked  what  he  thought  of  the  whole  affair 
he  said  that  he  was  sure  the  whole  thing  was  something  divine  and 
supernatural  and  also  implied  that  he  understood  it  all.  No  amount 
of  urging,  however,  could  induce  him  to  enter  deeper  into  the  question. 

In  the  ward,  besides  his  seclusiveness,  nothing  abnormal  could  be 
noticed.  He  spent  most  of  his  time  in  reading.  He  also  wrote 
numerous  letters  to  his  father  and  friends,  telling  them  about  his 
strange  experiences,  and  assuring  them  that  he  was  now  completely 
changed  and  perfectly  well  both  physically  and  mentally.  During 
my  visits  he  was  always  affable,  but,  except  concerning  his  discharge, 
he  evinced  no  desire  to  enter  into  conversation.  When  an  attempt 
was  made  to  question  him  he  immediately  stated  "that  it  was  time 
wasted  and  that  he  had  told  me  all  he  knew,"  and  always  ended  with 
his  preferred  quotation,  mentioned  above,  "There  are  many  things, 
doctor,  etc."  Only  on  a  few  occasions  was  it  possible  to  induce  him 
to  explain  some  of  the  details. 

This  condition  remained  essentially  unchanged  for  more  than  two 
months  when  he  was  discharged:  Diagnosis,  dementia  prsecox. 

For  those  who  work  up  their  cases  on  a  Kraepelin- 

Wernicke  basis  the  problem,  if  not  solved,  is  finished.     To 

be  sure  the  case  could  be  elaborated  upon.     A  detailed 

description  of  the  various  incidents  could  be  given,  but 

no  matter  how  extensive  and  detailed  it  might  be  made, 

if    we   followed  Kraepelin  the  personal  factors  would  be 

very  meagerly,  if  at  all,  considered.     Indeed,    Kraepelin 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND   THE    PSYCHOSES  .   207 

in  all  his  works,  gives  very  accurate  and  faithful  descrip- 
tions of  his  cases,  but  he  does  not  go  beyond  that.  It  makes 
no  difference  what  the  nature  of  a  special  case  may 
be  so  long  as  it  fulfils  certain  conditions  as  regards  the 
emotional  status,  morbid  perceptions,  delusions,  manner- 
isms, etc.  In  other  words  Kraepelin  totally  ignores 
individual  psychology. 

However,  both  on  the  continent  and  in  this  country  the 
tendency  now  is  to  pay  more  attention  to  individual 
psychology.  Instigated  by  the  valuable  discoveries  of 
Freud,  the  Zurich  school  took  up  the  problem  and  the 
results,  as  every  one  knows,  are  most  gratifying.  In  this 
country  A.  Meyer  and  August  Hoch  approached  the  prob- 
lem from  a  somewhat  different  standpoint  but  came  to 
essentially  the  same  conclusions,  namely,  that  attention 
must  be  paid  to  the  actual  cases  and  that  a  mere  general 
description  does  not  suffice.  The  works  of  Bleuler,  Jung, 
Riklin  and  others  show  how  effete  and  soulless  the  old 
routine  methods  of  description  appear  in  comparison  to 
the  very  interesting  psychoanalytic  methods  where  one 
finds  a  definite  relation  between  cause  and  effect.  In 
making  these  statements  I  do  not  wish  to  detract  in  any 
way  from  the  great  merits  of  Kraepelin  whose  epoch- 
making  works  in  modern  psychiatry  everyone  duly  recog- 
nizes; but  the  superiority  of  Kraepelin's  methods  over 
those  of  his  predecessors  only  serves  to  emphasize  their 
deficiencies  when  compared  to  the  psychoanalytic  methods. 

As  aforesaid  it  was  impossible  to  draw  the  patient  into 
ordinary  conversation  for  any  length  of  time,  so  that  I 
started  by  taking  his  associations  and  then  analyzed  them. 
The  following  associations  are  given: 


208  PSYCHOANALYSIS 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time* 

Reproduction 

1.  Coal 

Burning  Material 

3.4 

xt 

2.  Moderate 

Temperance 

4.2 

Wine  Beer 

3.  Song 

Singing  Club 

3.6 

X 

4.  To  Suppose 

To  Doubt 

5.2 

Religion 

5.  Pain 

Body 

2.6 

Phjsical  Pain 

6.  Lazy 

Schoolboy 

4.2 

Urchin 

7.  Moon 

Heaven 

3.6 

Venus 

8.  To  Laugh 

Society 

2.6 

X 

9.  Coffee 

Drink 

4.4 

Co£fee  Table 

10.  Broad 

Board 

2.4 

X 

Ass.  1,  "coal-burning  material"  shows  a  long  reaction 
time.  This  is  frequently  seen  in  the  beginning  of  the 
experiment.  On  analysis  it  recalls  many  reminiscences 
of  his  youth  when  he  lived  in  the  coal  region  of  B.  Ass.  2, 
"moderate — temperance — wine,  beer"  refers  to  his  com- 
plex of  drink.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  drank  much 
beer,  his  father  often  spoke  to  him  about  moderation. 
Ass.  3,  "song — singing  club,"  recalls  the  singing  club  of  B. 
which  patient  often  visited,  it  especially  recalls  a  dirge 
which  he  once  heard  and  this  recalls  his  dead  sweetheart. 
Ass.  4,  "to  suppose — to  doubt — religion "  refers  to  the  com- 
plex of  religion.  He  supposed  that  there  was  no  God  and 
he  doubted  all  religion,  but  now  he  is  quite  convinced  that 
the  contrary  is  true.  Ass.  5,  "pain — body — physical 
pain"  refers  to  rheumatic  pain  to  which  he  is  subject,  but 
mainly  to  the  pains  caused  by  his  father's  behavior  in 
ignoring  him.  Ass.  6,  "Lazy — schoolboy — urchin"  refers 
to  the  seven-year-old  son  of  the  widow  with  whom  he 
boarded.  Patient  showed  numerous  resistances  and 
obstructions   and   finally   refused    to    continue    with   this 

*The  time  is  indicated  in  seconds. 
fX  =  correct  reproduction. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND    THE    PSYCHOSES 


209 


association.  Ass.  7,  "moon — heaven — Venus."  Asked 
to  explain  this  strange  association  he  said:  "On  March 
28,  I  awoke  during  the  night  and  there  was  a  beauti- 
ful moon.  I  had  a  suggestive  dream.  I  thought  that  it 
could  be  possible  to  walk  on  the  water  and  be  born  like 
Venus  was.  He  then  refused  to  continue,  but  after  many 
obstructions  and  inhibitions  he  said  that  by  water  he  means 
the  Atlantic  and  Venus  refers  to  his  sweetheart  who  died 
in  America.  The  day  before,  he  saw  a  picture  in  the 
Berliner  lUustrierte  Zeitung  of  a  newly  discovered  "sea- 
people"  with  webbed  fingers  and  toes  who  either  barked 
or  prayed  to  the  moon.  Ass.  9,  "coffee — drink — coffee 
table"  recalls  a  friend  in  Guatemala,  a  coffee  planter,  who 
just  married  a  Swiss  girl  and  this  recalls  his  "first  and  only 
sweetheart"  who  married  in  America.  This  may  also 
refer  to  his  drinking  complex.  Ass.  10,  "broad-board" 
recalls  a  broad  tree  trunk,  broad  breast (sud- 
den obstruction). 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

11. 

Air 

Ether 

12. 

To  frighten 

Oh  terror 

13. 

Plate 

Table 

14. 

Tired 

Walk 

15. 

Intention 

Resolution 

16. 

To  fly 

Bird 

17. 

Eye 

Head 

18. 

Fruit 

Vegetable 

20. 

To  work 

Office 

21. 

To  sail 

Ocean 

22. 

Modest 

Virtue 

23. 

SoU 

Earth 

24. 

To  wliistle 

14 

Schoolboy 

Time 

31/ V,!^*-"-* 

Reproduction 

3.4 

Body 

4.2 

To  collapse 

2.0 

X 

3.2 

X 

6.0 

Determination  of 

wiU 

1.8 

X 

4.8 

Angel 

3.0 

X 

2.2 

X 

4.8 

X 

7.4 

Quality 

3.2 

X 

2.2 

X 

210  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Ass.  11,  "air — ether — body"  refers  to  ether  which  filled 
his  body  during  his  first  attack.  Ass.  12,  "to  frighten — 
oh  terror — to  collapse"  is  explained  as  follows:  ''When  I 
first  heard  the  voices  in  K.  I  became  so  terrified  that  I 
almost  collapsed.  It  was  so  real,  as  though  some  one 
was  near  me.  I  remained  'like  nailed.'  Then  I  called 
out  'who  talks  to  me  and  what  is  your  name?'  The 
voice  replied  'water,  drink —  water.' "  (See  Ass.  7.)  It 
was  so  terrible,  especially  after  the  frightful  night,  I 
did  not  sleep  at  all  during  that  night.  I  thought  some  one 
was  in  the  room  and  I  looked  under  the  bed,  but  I  found 
no  one.  I  also  dreamed  of  climbing  mountains.  I  arose 
at  5.30  and  then  a  suggestive  thought  almost  like  a  voice 
said:  'Jump  from  the  fourth  floor  window  and  if  you 
believe  you  will  rise  unharmed.'  Then  another  sugges- 
tion said  'How  can  you  do  it,  you  are  only  a  sinner'  and 
then  I  left  the  hotel.  Ass.  14,  "intention — resolution — 
determination  of  will"  is  explained  as  follows:  "Between 
1890  and  1895  I  drank  considerably.  Then  I  formed  a 
resolution  not  to  drink  and  I  was  a  total  abstainier  until 
1899  when  I  was  operated  upon  for  hemorrhoids.  Since 
then  I  drank  moderately.  I  also  resolved  never  to 
marry.  When  I  was  twenty-two  I  had  a  sweetheart,  a 
very  pretty  girl,  Marie  Biere.  I  was  very  anxious  to 
marry  her,  but  my  father  objected  to  it,  saying  that  I  was 
only  a  young  fool,  etc.  In  1887  she  went  to  America,  to 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  but  before  going  we  promised  to  be  true 
to  each  other.  In  1888  I  heard  she  married  a  Swiss  in 
Pittsburgh.  I  was  very  dejected.  It  was  my  first  real 
and  true  love.  I  had  many  sweethearts  after  that,  but  I 
never  loved  another  woman.     I  then  went  to  Paris  and 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE    PSYCHOSES 


211 


just  cast  myself  into  the  whirl  so  as  to  forget  everything 
and  I  finally  forgot  her.  In  1891  I  heard  she  died." 
While  reciting  this  the  patient  became  very  emotional) .  Ass. 
17,  "eye — head — angel"  recalls  his  father's  head,  "he  has  a 
wonderful  eye  like  Bismark — it  is  God's  eye."  (He  has 
only  one  eye.)  (In  his  delirium  his  father  was  God,  etc., 
see  above.)  Ass.  21,  "sail — ocean"  shows  a  very  long 
reaction  time.  He  thinks  of  America  where  he  was  so 
very  anxious  to  go,  but  his  father  objected.  Ass.  22, 
"modest — virtue — quality"  cannot  be  explained.  He 
began  to  speak  of  modest  women  but  suddenly  stopped. 
It  probably  has  some  erotic  sense.*  Ass.  23,  "soil — earth" 
shows  a  long  reaction  time  due  to  a  perseveration  of  former 
reaction;  probably  refers  to  dream  about  birth  of  Venus. 
Ass.  24,  "whistle — schoolboy"  is  another  reference  to  the 
boy  mentioned  in  Ass.  6;  he  showed  many  obstructions 
and  finally  asked  not  to  be  questioned  about  it.  Ass.  25, 
"aim — intention"  is  a  perseveration  of  the  former — he 
says  "Everything  has  its  reasons,  dress  is  only  to  cover 
the  body" — probably  some  erotic  complex. 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Tirrn 

J         Reproduction 

25. 

26.  Hat 

Summer 

3.4 

X 

27.  Hand 

Body 

2.6 

God's  hand 

28.  To  wake 

In  bed 

2.4 

To  get  out  of  bed 

29.  Apple 

You  have  I  believe 

3.8 

Fruit  tree  vegetables 

30.  Evil 

QuaUty 

2.6 

X 

31.  Mouth 

Head 

3.6 

Boy 

32.  To  drink 

Thirst 

3.4 

An  inn 

33.  Bed 

To  sleep 

2.6 

X 

*  The  word  is  used  in  its  original  Greek  sense,  as  anything  apper- 
taining to  love — eros. 


212 

PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reproduction 

34.  Pretty 

Pretty  girl 

4.4 

Beer 

35.  Danger 

Mountain 

5.0 

Mountain  fall 

36.  To  visit 

Friends 

3.0 

X 

37.  Laborer 

Mason 

2.2 

X 

38.  High 

Mountain 

2.6 

X 

39.  Axe 

Instrument 

2.4 

Carpenter 

40.  To  observe 

Adjective 

4.0 

School. 

Ass.  27,  "hand — body — God's  hand"  is  not  explained, 
but  it  probably  refers  to  his  religious  complex.  Ass.  28, 
"to  wake — in  bed — to  get  out  of  bed"  refers  to  expression 
"wide  awake  boy"  and  this  again  recalls  the  son  of  his 
landlady  (obstruction  emotivity).  Ass.  29,  "apple — you 
have  I  believe — fruit  tree  vegetables"  is  a  perseveration  of 
former  reaction,  or  may  have  an  erotic  sense — he  is 
unable  "to  explain  it."  Ass.  30,  "evil — quality"  evokes 
"bad  boy"  meaning  the  landlady's  boy  as  does  the  following 
Ass.  31,  "mouth — head — boy"  which  he  explains  as 
"human  mouth  connected  with  chewing,  eating,  etc." — 
mother's  mouth — "I  have  never  done  such  dirty  things." 
Asked  to  explain  what  he  means  he  at  first  refused  to 
continue  and  on  being  urged  he  said  "I  think  of  the  scenes 
that  I  witnessed-  in  Paris."  This  was  followed  by  a  sudden 
outburst  of  excitement.  He  jumped  up  and  talked  very 
excitedly.  He  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  be  forced  to 
talk  of  such  dirty  things,  that  he  never  would  think  of  it 
if  not  for  the  experiments,  etc.  He  was  so  irritable  that 
the  analysis  had  to  be  stopped  for  a  week.  Ass.  32, 
"drink — thirst — inn"  refers  to  his  alcoholic  complex. 
Ass.  34,  "pretty — pretty  girl — beer"  refers  to  his  sweet- 
heart whose  name  was  Biere.  Ass.  35,  "danger — mountain 
— mountain  fall"  refers  to  his  dreams  of  mountain  climbing. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES 


213 


He  also  stated  that  he  was  once  in  danger  of  falling  off 
a  steep  mountain  and  was  only  saved  by  the  timely 
arrival  of  a  mountain  guide.  Ass.  38,  "  high — mountain" 
again  refers  to  his  mountain  climbing  and  also  to  the 
frightful  dreams  about  climbing  at  the  onset  of  the  second 
crisis.  Ass.  40,  "to  observe — adjective — ^school"  refers 
again  to  the  schoolboy  and,  as  usual,  the  patient  could  not 
"explain  it." 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reproduction 

41.  Road 

I  also  think  of  a  la'mi 

4.0 

Forest 

42.  Round 

Globe 

2.2 

X 

43.  Blood 

Operation 

5.2 

Knight 

44.  To  state 

School 

4.2 

Schoolboy 

45.  Attention 

da-danger 

4.8 

QuaUty 

46.  Gay 

Society- 

3.2 

X 

47.  Market 

Stock  market 

4.2 

Money 

48.  To  forget 

Time 

5.4 

Love 

49.  Drum 

Carnival 

3.6 

X 

50.  Free 

Air 

4.8 

X 

Ass.  14,  "road — I  also  think  of  a  lawn-forest"  refers  to 
the  morning  of  his  second  attack  when  he  arose  early  to  go 
into  the  forest.  Ass.  43,  "blood — operation — knight"  the 
patient  states  that  in  1899  he  underwent  an  operation  for 
hemorrhoids  during  which  he  lost  much  blood.  It  also 
recalls  the  blood  of  the  grail  referred  to  in  Parsifal.  From 
blood  he  also  goes  to  the  word  "bluttd"  which  means 
naked  and  this  recalls  a  dream  fragment  about  arms  and 
breasts  which  he  had  on  the  night  of  July  16.  Ass.  44, 
"to  state — school — schoolboy"  refers  again  to  his  land- 
lady's boy.  Ass.  45,  "attention — da-danger — quality" 
refers  to  his  last  attack  when  the  voices  addressed  him. 
Ass.  47,   "market — stock  market — money"  refers  to  his 


214  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

trade  complex.  Ass.  48,  "to  forget — time — love"  he 
explained  as  follows:  "love  is  in  time  forgotten."  Ass.  50, 
"free — air"  refers  to  his  confinement. 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reproduction 

51.  Religion 

The  living  word 

4.2 

Thomas 

52.  Jews 

Deutches  Volksblatt 

3.4 

Rich 

53.  Isis 

Osiris 

3.0 

Banker 

54.  Widow 

Wehrli 

2.6 

X 

55.  Parsifal 

Knight 

4.0 

Guileless  fool 

56.  Father 

Love 

2.8 

X 

Ass.  51,  "religion — the  living  word — Thomas"  was 
explained  as  follows:  "Despite  my  being  brought  up 
religiously  I  became  a  free-thinker  and  for  years  I  never 
thought  of  religion.  I  scoffed  at  everything.  I  was  the 
real  'doubting  Thomas.'  I  studied  Nietzsche  and  espe- 
cially Max  Stirner,  whose  last  book  *Der  Einzige  u. 
sein  Eigentum  (The  Ego  and  His  Own) '  has  the  motto, 
'All  things  are  nothing  with  me.'  It  is  a  very  dangerous 
book.  But  all  my  ideas  and  plans  have  been  crushed 
because  I  could  no  conceive  the  real  and  holy  religion. 
What  happened  to  me  within  the  last  year  is  a  sign  sent 
from  above,  'the  true  living  word'  which  forces  me  to 
seek  God.  I  have  still  something  of  the  'doubting  Thomas,* 
but  it  will  soon  disappear."  Ass.  52,  "Jews — Deutsches 
Volksblatt — rich."  Patient  denied  bearing  any  animosity 
against  Jews.  He  worked  eighteen  years  with  Jews 
and  always  got  along  very  nicely  with  them.  "  They  are 
very  nice  rich  people,"  he  said,  but  for  some  reason  which 
he  is  unable  to  explain  he  was  a  regular  subscriber  to  the 
Deutsches  Volksblatt,  which  he  claims  is  an  antisemitic 
journal.     Ass.   53,   "isis — Osiris — banker"  refers  to  Mr. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  215 

Osiris,  a  very  wealthy  banker  in  Basel,  who  died  before 
the  patient's  first  attack.  The  patient  says  that  he  now 
recalls  that  during  the  first  attack  he  had  the  idea  that 
this  banker  left  him  30,000,000  francs.  Some  one  told 
him  so.  He  denies  ever  having  had  any  relations  with 
Mr.  Osiris.  Osiris  is  a  contiguous  association  of  Isis.  Ass. 
54,  "widow — Wehrli"  refers  to  Mrs.  Wehrli,  his  land- 
lady, with  whom  he  boarded  for  seven  years.  He  stated 
that  he  really  did  not  love  her,  but  he  liked  her  and 
seriously  thought  of  marrying  her.  In  1903  he  spoke 
about  it  to  his  father  who  objected  to  it.  After  Christ- 
mas, 1907,  he  resolved  to  save  money  and  then  marry  her, 
but  since  the  last  attack  he  gave  up  the  idea.  Ass.  55, 
''Parsifal — knight — guileless  fool"  refers  to  Parsifal  as 
depicted  in  Wagner's  opera,  where  he  is  named  the 
guileless  fool.  Patient  seemed  to  identify  himself  with 
the  knight,  but  did  not  fully  explain  it.  Like  Parsifal  he 
had  to  undergo  many  vicissitudes  before  recognizing  the 
true  religion.  But  we  shall  return  to  this  later.  Ass.  56, 
"father — love"  is  not  fully  explained.  Patient  said: 
"There  were  times  during  which  I  almost  hated  my  father, 
but  now  I  am  very  much  concerned  about  him  and  am 
very  anxious  to  see  him." 

One  hundred  and  fifty  associations  have  been  taken  from 
the  patient,  but  the  given  associations  are  sufficient  for  the 
explanation  of  the  principal  complexes  and  to  give  us  a 
fair  understanding  of  the  symptomatic  ideogenesis.  The 
main  characteristics  of  the  associations  are  the  long 
reaction  times  and  faulty  reproductions.  As  we  have 
said  above  the  average  reaction  time  of  persons  of  his  type 
is  taken  as  2.4  seconds.     In  the  associations  given  about 


216  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

84  per  cent,  are  above  the  normal  reaction  time  and  only 
about  43  per  cent,  of  the  reactions  are  correctly  reproduced. 
These  are  the  so-called  complex-indicators  and  wherever 
they  occur  are  taken  as  signs  of  complex  constellations. 
The  stimulus  word  either  consciously  or  unconsciously 
touched  the  complex  and  this  evoked  the  intervention  of 
an  idea  of  strong  emotional  tone.  This  always  happens 
in  normal  and  neurotic  individuals,  and  Jung  has  shown  that 
the  same  holds  true  in  Dementia  Praecox. 

When  we  examine  the  nature  of  the  associations  we 
find  that  sixteen  (3,  7,  9,  15,  21,  22,  23,  25,  29,  31,  34,  35, 
45,  53,  54,  58)  belong  to  the  erotic  complex,  seven  (4,  11, 
12,  27,  43,  51,  52)  to  the  complex  of  religion  and  six  (6, 
24,  28,  30,  31,  40)  directly  concern  the  "boy."  Unfor- 
tunately the  last  associations  were  not  satisfactorily 
explained  by  the  patient.  Judging  from  the  very  strong 
repression  which  dominated  them  we  are  quite  certain 
that  they  play  a  great  part  in  the  patient's  psyche.  Two 
suppositions  should  be  kept  in  mind: 

(1)  Patient  may  be  the  father  of  the  boy. 

(2)  There  may  have  been  some  homosexual  relations 
between  them.  In  favor  of  (1)  is  the  fact  that  he  boarded 
for  more  than  seven  years  with  the  boy's  mother  the  letters 
exchanged  between  the  patient  and  his  landlady  point 
to  that.  If  he  is  not  his  son  there  probably  was  some 
homosexual  relation  between  them  as  shown  by  Ass.  31. 
We  are  therefore  perfectly  justified  in  adding  these  six 
associations  to  the  erotic  which  gives  a  total  of  twenty- 
two.  The  religious  complexes,  too,  are  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  erotic. 

Bearing  this  in  mind  we  can  form  an  idea  of  the  part 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  217 

played  by  the  erotic  in  the  patient's  psyche.  We  can  say 
that  almost  all  his  psychical  components  when  thoroughly 
analyzed  show  some  relation  to  it.  This  may  seem 
peculiar,  but  it  is  not  at  all  unusual,  it  is  found  in  all 
psychoneuroses  as  well  as  in  the  normal.  According  to 
Freud  all  so-called  day  dreams  in  women  are  of  an  erotic 
nature.^  In  men  they  may  be  of  an  erotic  or  ambitious 
nature,  but  whenever  it  is  possible  to  analyze  the  ambitious 
reveries  they,  too,  may  be  found  to  belong  to  the  erotic. 
All  great  actions  and  accomplishments,  heroic  or  commer- 
cial, are  generally  done  for  the  purpose  of  pleasing  some 
woman  and  to  be  preferred  to  other  men.  That  our 
patient  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  is  quite  natural. 

RECAPITULATION 

We  have  here  a  man  of  thirty-nine  years  old  suffering 
from  a  psychosis  of  a  year's  duration.  He  cannot  account 
for  it.  He  thinks  it  came  on  suddenly.  Only  a  few  days 
before  the  onset  he  was  thoughtful  and  nervous.  This 
psychosis  is  characterized  by  two  distinct  crises  with  a 
transitional  period  of  about  five  months.  Both  crises 
were  of  the  delirious,  confusional,  dream-like  type,  the 
first  lasting  three  days,  and  the  second  about  one  week. 
The  period  of  transition  is  characterized  by  marked  rest- 
lessness, delusions  and  hallucinations.  The  second  crisis 
was  not  followed  by  any  recovery  in  the  strict  sense,  as  he 
still  entertained  false  ideas  which  he  did  not  try  to  correct. 
On  the  contrary  he  considered  all  attempts  in  that  direc- 
tion futile  and  unnecessary.  The  strange  manifestations 
he    recognized    as    supernatural,    divine   and  purposeful; 


218  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

they  were  intentionally  sent  to  compel  him  to  change  his 
mode  of  living  and  return  to  the  religion  of  his  father. 
He  sees  in  all  this  the  "Hand  of  God."  In  other  words, 
we  see  here  a  gradual  and  systematic  change  of  personality 
which  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  is  only  the  process 
of  transformation  and  will  probably  lead  to  further  system- 
atization  and  dissociation.* 

Both  the  abstract  of  the  history  and  the  patient's 
katamnestic  account  give  a  fair  gross  picture  of  the  psy- 
chosis, but  do  not  in  any  way  explain  the  psychogenesis 
of  the  symptoms.  The  associations,  as  can  be  seen,  have 
thrown  considerable  light  on  the  subject,  they  uncovered 
many  obscure  points  and  called  forth  many  new  ones, 
but  we  are  still  in  darkness  concerning  the  causal  deter- 
minations of  the  symptoms  which  we  shall  now  proceed  to 
examine. 

That  the  psychosis  did  not  come  on  as  suddenly  as 
would  appear  is  quite  certain.  When  we  thoroughly 
examine  the  patient's  antecedent  history  we  find  that  for 
a  number  of  years  his  mind  was  gradually  being  pre- 
pared for  it.  Since  his  twenty-second  year  he  sustained 
a  number  of  psychic  shocks  of  different  degrees.  The 
first  and  most  important  was  his  love  affair  with  Miss  B. 
which  ended  so  unfortunately.  To  form  an  opinion  of  the 
effect  it  left  on  the  patient  it  was  only  necessary  to  watch 
his  mimicry  while  he  recited  this  episode.  As  we  know  it  is 
very  difficult  to  evoke  an  adequate  affect  in  such  patients, 
but  when  this  unhappy  love  affair  of  sixteen  years  ago 
was  touched  he  immediately  lost  his  wonted  taciturnity 

*  Nothing  has  been  heard  from  the  patient  since  his  discharge 
from  the  hospital. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE    PSYCHOSES  219 

and  indifference,  his  eyes  brightened  and  his  face  red- 
dened. He  was  again  the  young  lover  of  twenty-two. 
He  spoke  fluently  about  his  ardent  affections:  "I  was  then 
innocent  and  really  loved.  It  was  my  first  and  true 
love.  All  the  other  love  affairs  which  I  subsequently 
entertained  were  dulled  by  this  first  one."  He  became 
enraged  when  he  recalled  his  father's  attitude  in  this 
affair.  "Whenever  I  think  of  it  I  am  compelled  to  hate 
him,"  he  said.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  this  love  was 
always  in  his  mind  in  a  repressed  state  and  that  it  mark- 
edly influenced  his  actions. 

In  1901  he  loved  another  woman,  Miss  I.  W.  "It  was 
only  sexual  love,"  he  said,  "but  I  would  have  married 
her."  She  proved  false  to  him  and  married  an  army 
officer.  In  1903  he  decided  to  marry  his  landlady  and  his 
father  again  objected.  This  time,  however,  he  disregarded 
his  father  and  resolved  to  follow  his  own  inclinations.  As 
a  result  his  father  severed  all  relations  with  him  and 
he  neither  saw  nor  heard  from  him  for  three  years,  yet 
this  did  not  seem  to  disturb  him.  But  in  spite  of  all  he 
did  not  marry  Mrs.  W.  For  reasons  unexplained  he 
kept  on  putting  it  off  until  Christmas,  1907,  when  he 
finally  resolved  to  save  his  money  and  marry  her.  But 
at  the  same  time  there  was  a  reawakening  of  paternal 
sentiment.  He  sent  his  father  letters  and  his  photograph, 
but  they  were  all  returned.  This  irritated  him  and  he 
decided  never  to  write  to  him  again.  As  we  have  shown 
he  did  not  keep  his  resolutions. 

Besides  the  episodes  mentioned  there  were  probably 
other  psychical  disturbances,  but  unfortunately  the 
patient  was  not  very  communicative.     We  also  see  quite 


220  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

plainly  that  for  a  number  of  years  he  was  subjected  to  a 
mental  conflict.  As  a  youth  he  was  brought  up  amid 
religious  surroundings.  His  father  was  antisemitic  and 
naturally  the  same  ideas  were  inculcated  in  the  son. 
When  he  became  older  he  changed  completely.  He 
became  an  atheist  and  worked  among  Jews  for  eighteen 
years.  This  was  undoubtedly  a  resistance  to  his  father. 
He  no  longer  attended  church,  but  studied  Nietzsche, 
Stirner  and  others.  Now  and  then  his  father  upbraided 
him  for  it,  but  without  avail.  That  he  did  not  entirely 
rid  liimself  of  his  early  religious  training,  but  only  repressed 
it,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  kept  on  subscribing  to  an 
antisemitic  journal  and  during  the  Dreyfus  affair,  he  was 
the  only  anti-Dreyfussard  in  his  office.  He  could  not  be 
convinced  that  Dreyfus  was  not  guilty  (symbolic  actions). 
Unconsciously  his  early  training  remained  in  a  dormant 
state.  It  is  not  at  all  easy  for  one  who  has  been  brought 
up  in  a  certain  rehgious  atmosphere  to  his  sixteenth  year  to 
entirely  free  himself  from  it.  Many  persons  imagine  that 
they  are  entirely  emancipated  from  their  early  religious 
training  and  are  manifestly  so  until  a  grave  moment  inter- 
venes. Then,  provided  they  are  mentally  strong,  the 
repressed  ideas  reassert  themselves.  This  accounts  for 
the  many  so-called  conversions  and  recantations  during 
grave  diseases  or  on  deaths  beds. 

Both  the  patient's  crises  show  some  connection  with 
religious  events.  Christmas,  1907,  marks  the  manifest 
beginning  of  his  restlessness.  At  this  time  his  feeUngs 
toward  his  father  suddenly  changed.  The  suggestive 
dream  referred  to  under  Ass.  7  was  on  the  evening  of 
Good   Friday  and   marked   the  beginning  of  the  second 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  221 

attack.*  The  day  following  the  dream  he  set  out  on  the 
journey  which  finally  landed  him  in  the  hospital  of  K. 

We  see,  then,  that  we  have  at  least  two  psychic  instances 
of  great  moment  which  have  long  been  repressed  and 
which  now  suddenly  reasserted  themselves.  The  question 
arises — how  did  this  come  about?  A  personal  predispo- 
sition is  presupposed.  The  conflict  existing  for  years 
caused  an  " ahaisment  du  niveau  mental"  (Janet). ^  The 
repressed  unconscious  complexes  gradually  freed  them- 
selves from  the  domination  of  the  ego-complex^  and  then 
manifested  themselves  in  the  form  of  automatisms,  such 
as  suggestions  and  inspirations  and  finally  as  hallucinations. 
The  obnubilation  which  followed  allowed  the  appearance 
of  the  manifold  senseless  manifestations  which  were 
brought  about  by  the  dream  mechanisms  described  by 
Freud. 

If  this  supposition  is  true,  the  individual  symptoms 
ought  to  be  psychically  constellated  by  the  complexes. 
I  shall  forthwith  show  that  this  is  really  the  case. 

When  we  look  at  our  cases  in  the  wards  we  are  often 
struck  by  their  strange  utterances  and  peculiar  behavior. 
Until  recently  we  were  quite  satisfied  to  note  that  the 
patient  is  delusional  and  demented,  that  he  utters  sense- 
less phrases  and  goes  through  a  number  of  peculiar  actions. 
Thanks  to  Freud  we  know  that  all  actions  and  speech  in 
both  normal  and  abnormal  individuals  are  psychically 
determined.®  Jung,  following  Freud,  made  thorough 
analyses  of  cases  of  Dementia  Praecox  showing  that 
all   the   patients'   absurd   utterings    were    quite    relevant 

*The  episode  in  Wagner's  Parsifal  also  revolves  around  Good 
Friday. 


222  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

when  analyzed  and,  furthermore,  that  all  the  speech 
and  motor  manifestations  were  distinctly  traced  to  the 
complex.'' 

Let  us  now  examine  the  individual  symptoms  of  our 
patient.  The  crises  which  we  went  through  can  be  readily 
compared  to  the  normal  dream.  Like  the  expressions 
in  dreams  our  patient's  utterances  at  first  sight  seem  quite 
senseless,  but  have  a  meaning  as  soon  as  analyzed.  The 
first  crisis  began  with  an  ecstatic  feeling.  He  was  forced 
into  an  attitude  of  prayer  by  an  invisible  force.  He  had 
to  cry  out,  "Lord,  have  mercy  on  suffering  humanity." 
This  is  nothing  but  a  powerful  reassertion  of  his  repressed 
religious  presentations,  which  by  his  impaired  judgment 
can  only  be  interpreted  as  an  external  power.  The  com- 
plex of  religion  intimately  connected  with  his  father  gained 
the  upper  hand  and  he  was  therefore  forced  to  assume  an 
attitude  of  prayer  and  cry  out,  "Lord,  have  mercy,  etc." 
He  also  had  to  repeat  the  "Our  Father"  hundreds  of  times. 
As  we  know  his  father  played  a  great  part  in  this  attack, 
hence  the  frequent  repetition.  The  directing  thought 
being  absent  the  vacuum  of  association  causes  the  stereo- 
typed repetition.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  he 
identified  himself  with  Christ  and  his  father  with  God. 
Hence  he  repeated  the  Lord's  prayer. 

The  influence  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  Isis  and  Osiris,  is 
explained  in  Ass.  53.  The  death  of  Mr.  Osiris  naturally 
interested  him  as  he  was  a  bank  official.  It  is  quite  likely 
that  either  consciously  or  unconsciously  he  expressed 
a  wish  that  some  of  the  money  would  be  left  to  him.  The 
delirium,  like  the  dream,  fulfilled  that  wish  and  he,  there- 
fore,  imagined   that  the  banker  left  him   thirty  million 


PSYCHOANALYSIS  AND  THE   PSYCHOSES  223 

francs.     Osiris,  is  a  contiguous  association  of  Isis.     Hence 
he  felt  the  influence  of  Isis  and  Osiris. 

Why  was  he  forced  to  repeat  "Am  I  Parsifal,  the  guile- 
less fool?"  In  order  to  understand  this  analysis  it  is  neces- 
sary to  bear  in  mind  the  original  German.  He  kept 
on  repeating  "Am  I  Parsifal  reinster  Thor."  Those  who 
recall  the  methods  of  analyzing  dreams  know  what  a 
great  part  is  played  by  "condensation"  and  "contami- 
nation."* On  carefully  examining  the  patient's  doings 
of  the  day  before  his  first  crisis  it  was  found  that  on  looking 
over  some  old  papers  and  correspondence  he  found  many 
letters  from  his  old  sweetheart.  He  stated  that  he  did 
not  attempt  to  read  them,  but  he  happened  to  notice  the 
following  sentence:  "I  am  in  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania, 
with  a  family  named  Thaw."  This  was  the  first  letter  she 
sent  him  from  America  in  which  she  told  him  that  she  was 
a  servant  in  the  Thaw  family.  She  remained  with,  this 
family  for  some  time  and  he  corresponded  with  her  regu- 
larly for  about  a  year.  He  stated  that  after  noticing  this 
sentence  it  "sort  of  possessed  him"  and  for  hours  he  was 
compelled  to  repeat  in  his  mind  "Pittsburgh,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Thaw."  He  spoke  English  fairly  well  and  had  a 
very  good  reading  knowledge  of  it.  On  being  requested  to 
write  this  phrase  he  wrote  it  as  follows:  "Pa.,  Pittsburgh, 
Thaw,"  remarking  at  the  same  time  that  Pa.  is  the  abbrevia- 
tion for  Pennsylvania.  I  now  venture  the  following  ex- 
planation. The  memory  picture  of  the  word  Pennsylvania 
may  be  the  whole  word  or  its  abbreviation  Pa.,  hence  in 
the  mind  they  exist  simultaneously  as  Pa.,  Pennsylvania. 

Condensation  is  a  fusion  of  events,  pictures,  and  elements  of 
speech.     Contamination  is  a  fusion  of  speech  only. 


224  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  dream  does  not  find  it  difficult  to  condense  Pa.  Pennsyl- 
vania into  Pannsylvania  and  then  form  it  into  PANNSYVL- 
ania  which  by  sound  association  corresponds  to  Parisfal. 
The  resemblance  between  Thaw  and  Thor  is  quite  obvious. 
If  we  now  place  the  two  sentences  parallel  to  each  other  we 
have  the  following: 

PANNSYVLania  Pittsburg  THAW 

PARSIFAL  reinster  THOR 

All  letters  for  the  pronunciation  of  "reinster"  can 
readily  be  found  in  the  word  Pittsburgh  and  the  remnant 
of  Pennsylvania.  Such  condensations  and  transpositions 
happen  quite  frequently  in  dreams  and  wit,  especially  if 
there  be  another  determining  factor.  Our  patient  im- 
perfectly identified  himself  with  Parsifal  as  shown  in 
Ass.  55. 

"The  Jews  played  some  part  in  it"  is  all  we  could  get 
from  our  patient.  He  insisted  that  he  never  had  any 
differences  with  Jews.  What  part  they  played  in  his  attack 
cannot  be  explained,  but  it  may  simply  have  been  a  forc- 
ible reassertion  of  his  father's  doctrines. 

Thus  we  see  that  all  the  known  senseless  utterances  of 
the  first  crisis  are  fairly  well  determined.  Let  us  now 
turn  to  the  second  crisis. 

He  was  quite  sure  that  during  the  first  attack  he  heard 
no  distinct  voices.  Everything  was  accomplished  by 
some  strange  power  which  he  designates  as  magnetic 
electric  mental  suggestion.  These  suggestions,  although 
abating  after  the  first  crisis,  did  not  entirely  cease.  He 
said  that  he  was  all  the  time  more  or  less  under  sugges- 
tions.    On  July  16  he  reached  K.  and  passed  a  very  rest- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND   THE    PSYCHOSES  225 

less  night  there.  He  slept  but  little  and  was  constantly 
troubled  by  frightful  dreams. 

When  the  patient  was  asked  to  recount  the  dreams 
he  only  remembered  about  "cUmbing  a  high  mountain 
or  mountains,"  that  he  suddenly  became  "like  nailed" 
and  could  go  no  further,  and  that  he  "experienced  in- 
tense fear."  (On  another  occasion  he  claimed  to  have 
dreamed  about  round  arms  and  breasts.  See  explanation 
of  Ass.  43.)  When  an  attempt  was  made  to  analyze  it 
he  absolutely  refused  all  collaboration.  Notwithstanding 
this  we  know  enough  about  dreams  to  enable  us  to  venture 
an  opinion.  Since  the  first  crisis  he  was  under  great  mental 
stress.  The  conflict  was  "Shall  I  abide  by  my  decisions 
and  marry  Mrs.  W.  or  shall  I  comply  with  my  father's 
wishes."  As  we  know  he  had  for  years  planned  to  marry 
in  spite  of  his  father's  objections  and  about  Christmas 
time  was  fully  determined  to  do  it  when  a  sudden  reaction 
set  in  and  his  repressed  complexes  or  his  father's  domination 
predominated.  The  mountain  chmbing  is  a  symbolic 
representation  of  this  struggle.  He  was  aboiit  to  consum- 
mate his  determination  when  he  became  "Hke  nailed  and 
could  go  no  further."  In  the  dream,  as  was  shown,  the 
sensation  of  being  inhibited,  such  as  not  being  able  to 
move  or  rim  when  one  most  desires  to  do  so,  means  "no." 
There  is  a  conflict  of  the  will.  One  begins  to  do  something 
and  the  censor  says  "No,  that  shall  not  be  done."  He  was 
about  to  overcome  all  parental  scruples.  After  years 
he  finally  decided  to  disregard  his  father  and  marry  when 
he  was  suddenly  checked. 

This  is  quite  a  plausible  and  innocent  interpretation, 

but  like  every  harmless  self  evident  dream  it  is  only  con- 
is 


226  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

cealing  something  deeper  and  more  intimate.  The  fear 
and  anxiety  in  this  dream  show  us  that  we  deal  with  in- 
tense psychic  resistance  the  content  of  which  belongs  to 
the  erotic.  Dreams  accompanied  by  anxiety  always  belong 
to  the  sexual.  ''Anxiety  is  a  libidinous  impulse  emanat- 
ing from  the  unconscious  and  inhibited  by  the  fore-con- 
scious." (Freud.)  In  the  waking  state  we  find  its  counter- 
part in  the  psychoneuroses.^  We  know  also  that  he 
dreamed  of  "round  arms  and  breasts."  Round  arms  and 
breasts  are  woman's  arms  and  breasts.  The  mountains  or 
mountain  in  the  dream  probably  meant  "mons  veneris," 
The  German  expression  for  mons  veneris  is  well  known  to 
the  patient.  As  shown  above  he  also  dreamed  of  Venus 
and  of  her  birth.  This  shows  the  sexual  part  of  the  dream. 
This  is  further  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  since  his  first 
crisis  he  was  a  sexual  abstainer.  Suppressed  sexuality 
manifests  itself  in  anxiety. 

The  onset  of  the  second  crisis  was  even  more  intense 
than  the  first.  It  began  with  suggestions  and  soon 
merged  into  distinct  voices.  While  dressing  the  suggestive 
thought  "almost  like  a  voice  said  'jump  from  the  fourth 
floor  window  and  if  you  believe  you  will  rise  unharmed." 
Then  another  suggestion  said:  "How  can  you  do  it,  you 
are  only  a  sinner?"  Here  we  see  very  nicely  the  marked 
activity  of  the  unconscious  and  the  part  played  by  the 
teleological  suggestions.  Both  Bleuler^  and  Jung^"^  give 
good  examples  of  this  mechanism.  It  is  a  quite  common 
contrast  automatism  and  generally  manifests  itself  in 
strong  dissociations.  Here  we  see  it  at  the  height  of  the 
disease. 

As  soon  as  he  left  the  hotel  the  suggestion  changed  into 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE   PSYCHOSES  227 

auditory  hallucinations.  It  was  impossible  to  find  out 
the  contents  of  the  hallucinations,  but  during  the  analysis 
of  Ass.  12  he  stated  that  the  voice  said  "water,  drink 
water."  This  likely  refers  to  the  Atlantic  (Ass.  7)  or  to 
his  complex  of  drinking  (see  Ass.  2).  We  know,  how- 
ever, that  the  voices  so  terrified  him  as  to  cause  him  to 
apply  for  police  protection. 

What  followed  he  remembers  but  dimly.  He  was  in  a 
deUrious  dreamlike  state  for  about  a  week.  He  was  in 
heaven.  He  heard  indistinct  voices  and  saw  "many 
bluish  angels."  His  father  was  God  and  he  was  Christ 
and  his  former  Superintendent  R.,  for  whom  he  had  no 
particular  love,  was  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  was  now 
reconciled  to  his  father  and  his  religion.  This  was  a 
hyperbolic  realization  of  the  normal  dream.  Says  Freud: 
"The  conscious  wish  becomes  a  dream  incitor  only  when 
it  succeeds  in  arousing  a  similar  unconscious  one,"  and 
"The  wish  as  represented  in  the  dream  must  be  an 
infantile  one."^°  The  wish  reahzation  in  our  patient's 
deUrium  certainly  fulfils  all  these  conditions.  It  sounds 
like  a  fragment  of  a  child's  conception  of  heaven  and 
recalls  such  religious  paintings  as  Hofmann's  Ascension 
or  Zuccaro's  Christ  Surrounded  by  Angels, 

Thus  the  problems  are  solved.  The  repressed  complexes 
as  typified  in  his  father  now  dominate  the  ego-complex 
and  influence  all  thoughts  and  actions.  His  personality 
underwent  a  complete  transformation;  he  was  again  united 
to  his  father.  He  was  no  longer  a  follower  of  Stirner  but 
considered  the  "Ego  and  his  Own"  as  dangerous.  From 
the  avowed  philosopher  and  atheist  he  changed  into  the 
devout  believer  of  the  supernatural  and  hence  his  preferred 


228  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

quotation.     "There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth, 
doctor,  than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  psychiatry." 

Case  II. — A.  St.,  twenty  years  old,  law  student  and  journalist, 
was  admitted  to  my  service  in  the  clinic  of  psychiatry,  Zurich,  on 
January  22,  1908.  His  friend  and  colleague  stated  that  the  patient 
was  a  Hungarian  jomrnaUst  who  came  to  Zurich  to  study  law.  He 
was  considered  very  diligent  and  brilliant,  but  somewhat  eccentric. 
He  seemed  to  have  been  depressed  for  some  time,  remaining  in  bed 
for  days  and  taking  very  little  nourishment,  but  for  the  previous 
two  days  he  had  shown  some  improvement.  He  attempted  to  shoot 
himself  at  about  12  o'clock  on  the  day  of  admission.  He  discharged 
five  shots  and  beyond  grazing  his  shirt,  striking  a  candle  which 
stood  near  his  bed  and  a  picture  of  Ibsen  on  the  opposite  wall  he 
did  no  damage.  The  reason  for  the  attempted  suicide  was  supposed 
to  be  unrequited  love.  In  the  beginning  of  December  he  had  made 
the  acquaintance  of  a  lady  student  with  whom  he  soon  became 
infatuated.  His  love  was  not  reciprocated  so  that  he  became  des- 
pondent, neglected  his  work  and  uttered  pessimistic  and  gloomy 
ideas.  The  informant  stated  that  as  soon  as  the  shots  were  heard 
he  ran  into  the  room  and  found  the  patient  Ijdng  on  the  bed  in  a 
deUrious  condition.  He  was  confused,  murmured  to  himself  and 
asked  meaningless  questions,  repeating  "Where  are  the  white  horses?" 
The  last  question  he  also  repeatedly  put  to  the  physician  who  was 
called  in  soon  after  the  shooting. 

An  anamnesis  was  also  obtained  from  the  patient's  father  about  a 
week  later.  He  denied  any  psychic  abnormalities  in  the  family,  but 
he  himself  was  neuropathic  and  it  was  afterward  learned  that  one  of 
his  daughters  was  hysterical.  He  stated  that  the  patient  was  always 
somewhat  deUcate,  but  developed  normally.  As  he  grew  up  he  was 
"indifferent,  cold,  seclusive  and  obdurate,  but  very  bright."  He 
was  always  at  the  head  of  his  class.  His  teachers  referred  to  him  as 
a  prodigy  and  his  professors  predicted  a  great  future  for  him.  At  a 
very  early  age  he  manifested  a  great  talent  for  writing  and  since 
his  fifteenth  year  he  had  supported  himself  by  journahsm.  His 
feuilletons  were  sought  for  by  the  leading  Hungarian  journals.  Due 
to  the  divorce  of  his  parents  he  had  Uved  apart  from  them  since  his 
fifteenth  year.  He,  however,  kept  on  corresponding  regularly  with 
his  father  and  paid  him  an  occasional  visit. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  229 

On  admission  the  patient  was  exceedingly  apathetic  and  took 
absolutely  no  interest  in  his  surroundings.  WTien  addressed  he 
showed  some  confusion.  He  seemed  to  be  unable  to  comprehend  the 
questions  and  his  answers  were  monosyllabic  and  laconic.  He  did 
not  care  what  would  happen.  "Do  what  you  please,"  he  would  say. 
In  appearance  he  was  under-developed  and  small.  His  head  seemed 
too  big  for  his  body,  probably  due  to  his  long,  black  hair  which  hung 
over  his  shoulders.  The  physical  examination  revealed  nothing  in 
particular.  In  the  ward  he  was  quiet  and  indifferent.  He  lay  on 
his  back  motionless,  either  keeping  his  eyes  shut  or  staring  vacantly 
into  space.  He  expressed  no  desires  and  when  an  attempt  was  made 
to  draw  him  into  conversation  he  became  mute.  He  took  very  httle 
nourishment  and  this  only  after  much  urging.  When  seen  the  next 
morning  he  was  essentially  unchanged.  The  nurse  reported  that  he 
slept  well,  but  paid  absolutely  no  attention  to  anything. 

The  main  features  were  dulness,  apathy,  somnolence  and  probably 
hallucinations  as  shown  by  his  asking  for  white  horses.  This  condi- 
tion continued  for  four  days  after  which  he  gradually  became  brighter 
and  at  the  end  of  a  few  days  more  he  was  apparently  his  former  self. 

He  was  discharged  on  January  31  to  go  to  Vienna  with  his  father. 
Diagnosis,  schizophrenia.  * 

We  have  here  a  precocious  youth,  slightly  burdened  by 
heredity,  who,  having  been  disappointed  in  love,  lost  his 
mental  equilibrium  and  merged  into  schizophrenia.  He 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  suicide  and  later  he 
was  delirious  and  hallucinatory,  uttering  senseless  stereo- 
typed phrases.  This  was  followed  by  a  short  period  of 
apathy,  mutism  and  dulness,  after  which  he  gradually 
improved. 

As  soon  as  conditions  were  favorable  an  attempt  was 
made  to  draw  the  patient  into  conversation  so  as  to  have 
him  explain  some  of  the  obscure  points,  but,  as  is  generally 
the  case,  nothing  of  importance   could  be  elicited.     He 

*  The  patient  has  been  perfectly  well  since  his  discharge  from  the 
hospital. 


230 


PSYCHOANALYSIS 


was  suspicious  or  simply  unwilling  to  enter  deeply  into 
the  questions.  A  hundred  associations  were  therefore 
taken  and  analyzed  by  the  psychoanalytic  method,  i.e., 
after  the  complexes  were  found  I  resorted  to  the  continu- 
ous associations.  The  words  employed  were  the  usual 
100  words  used  for  psychoanalytic  and  diagnostic  purposes. 
Some  of  the  words,  however,  were  changed  and  others 
bearing  directly  on  the  incident  were  inserted. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  associations  obtained 
from  the  patient: 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reproduction 

4.  To  suppose 

Freedom 

3.8 

X 

5.  Pain 

Bad 

2.2 

X 

6.  Lazy 

Early 

1.8 

X 

7.  Moon 

Sun 

2.6 

X 

12.  To  frighten 

Epilepsy 

3.4 

X 

14.  Tired 

Rest 

2.0 

X 

15.  Intention 

Evil 

2.8 

X 

16.  To  dance 

Polish 

3.0 

X 

17.  Eye 

Eye 

3.8 

X 

19.  To  aim 

I 

3.8 

Candle 

Ass.  4,  "to  suppose — freedom"  refers  to  his  complex  of 
confinement.  He  supposes  that  he  will  soon  be  dis- 
charged from  the  hospital.  Ass.  5,  "pain — bad"  explains 
that  he  had  much  pain  over  this  love  affair,  but,  as  shown 
by  the  reaction  time,  it  provoked  no  emotion  whatever. 
Ass.  6,  "lazy — early"  refers  to  his  being  lazy.  He 
never  likes  to  rise  mornings.  It  also  recalls  that  he  was 
too  lazy  to  commit  suicide  in  the  morning  and  waited 
until  noon.  Ass.  7,  "moon — sun"  was  explained  as 
follows:  While  walking  one  day  with  Mina  (his  beloved), 
they  stopped  to  look  at  a  photograph  representing  a  man 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE   PSYCHOSES  231 

and  woman  riding  on  a  crescent  (moon).  At  that  time 
the  position  of  the  two  young  persons  on  the  crescent 
rather  pleased  him,  and  he  remarked  to  her  that  he  would 
Uke  to  ride  with  her  on  the  moon.  He  then  recalled  some 
things  which  he  did  not  wish  to  explain — probably  some 
erotic  thoughts.  Ass.  12,  "to  frighten — epilepsy"  refer- 
red to  an  incident  in  the  ward.  An  epileptic  had  a  fit 
which  frightened  him  as  it  was  the  first  time  he  ever  saw 
such  thing.  Ass.  14,  "tired — rest"  referred  to  his  state 
before  admission  to  the  hospital.  Ass.  16,  "to  dance — 
Polish"  was  explained  as  follows:  "On  Saturday  evening, 
December  7,  I  went  to  the  Polish  dance  where  I  met  my 
three  lady  acquaintances,  Heda,  Mina  and  Dina.  My 
main  object  in  going  there  was  to  gather  some  material 
for  an  article  on  the  Hfe  of  the  Russian  and  Polish  students 
in  Zurich."  He  stated  that  when  he  got  there  he  saw 
Miss  Dina,  whom  he  had  known  for  some  time,  in  the 
company  of  some  gentlemen.  He  was  not  indifferent  to 
her.  He  always  found  "something  pleasant  in  her." 
She  impressed  him  differently  from  the  others  because 
she  was  somewhat  outspoken.  On  a  number  of  occasions 
she  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him  that  he  was  only  a  poseur, 
etc.,  a  thing  which  rather  wounded  his  vanity.  Yet, 
he  did  not  know  why,  she  continued  to  be  of  more  interest 
to  him  than  the  others.  For  some  reason  when  he  noticed 
her  at  the  dance  he  purposely  turned  to  another  direction, 
but  did  not  lose  sight  of  her.  On  that  evening  he  felt 
some  change  coming  over  him.  Of  a  usually  cynical 
and  taciturn  disposition  he  suddenly  became  very  cheerful 
and  loquacious.  The  music  exerted  an  unusual  influence 
on  him.     He  said  and  did  things  which  are  still  enigmatical 


232  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

to  him.  The  women  especially  pleased  him  and,  realizing 
this,  the  words  of  Mephistopheles  recurred  to  him:  "Du 
siehst  mit  diesem  Trank  in  Leibe,  Bald  Helenen  in  jedem 
Weibe."  Many  women  seemed  to  make  advances  to  him. 
They  sent  him  all  kinds  of  notes  and  made  flattering 
remarks  about  him.  One  elderly  woman  made  such 
remarks  as  "Just  see  this  handsome  boy,"  etc.  Another 
woman,  totally  unknown  to  him,  sent  him  a  senseless  note 
about  "loving,  human  and  erring."  Another  sent  him  a 
gillyflower.  On  later  losing  his  necktie  he  stuck  this 
flower  into  his  collar  and  wore  it  for  the  remainder  of  the 
evening.  Another  peculiar  action  was  this:  Everybody 
was  requested  to  wear  numbers  which  were  distributed 
to  everyone  present.  The  gentleman  and  lady  drawing 
the  same  numbers  were  supposed  to  exchange  souvenir 
cards.  When  he  received  his  number  he  scratched  it  out 
and  wrote  on  the  card  a  big  "I"  and  this  he  wore  the 
entire  evening.  He  further  recalled  that  he  was  very 
restless  for  a  few  days  previous.  He  spent  money  use- 
lessly, went  to  many  concerts,  felt  freer  than  usual,  and 
thought  of  traveling.  Ass.  17  "eye — eye"  refers  to  his 
own  eye.  He  thought  that  his  left  eye  was  somewhat 
smaller  than  his  right  and  this  he  considered  a  sign  of 
paresis.  This  gave  rise  to  a  number  of  hypochondriacal 
and  depressive  ideas.  In  a  letter  written  to  his  father 
long  before  this  suicide  episode  took  place  he  signed  him- 
self "Candidate  for  Paresis."  Ass.  19,  "to  aim — I — 
candle"  he  explained  as  follows:  "At  the  moment  that 
I  grasped  the  revolver  I  felt  some  fear,  but  aimed  at  my 
breast.  The  discharge  confounded  me.  I  was  convinced 
that  I  had  struck  myself  and  dropped  the  revolver,  but 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE    PSYCHOSES 


233 


I  immediately  grasped  it  again  and  fired  fom-  times.  I 
seemed  to  look  for  something  to  aim  at.  I  remember 
distinctly  aiming  at  the  candle  standing  not  far  from  the 
window  and  at  a  picture  of  a  bust  of  Ibsen  on  the  opposite 
wall."    More  of  this  later. 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reproduction 

22.  Modest 

Violet 

3.2 

X 

23.  Ground 

Seed 

4.6 

Onanism 

27.  Death 

Accidentally 

3.0 

X 

30.  Bad 

Very 

3.2 

Night 

34.  Pretty 

Fairly 

2.0 

X 

40.  To  crack 

Arms 

2.0 

X 

47.  Weapon 

Unskilled 

3.6 

X 

48.  Forget 

Love 

3.0 

X 

51.  To  dare 

To  win 

3.8 

3t 

Ass.  22,  "modest — violet"  was  explained  as  follows: 
"The  violet  is  a  symbol  of  modesty.  Miss  Dina  always 
repeated  that  I  was  nOt  modest.  Many  people  reproached 
me  for  the  same  thing,  but  I  always  sought  refuge  in 
Goethe  who  says  'only  scamps  are  modest.'"  Ass.  23, 
"ground — seed — onanism."  By  way  of  explanation  he 
quoted  the  Bible  "He  (Onan)  spilled  it  on  the  ground 
lest  that  he  should  give  seed."  When  asked  whether  he 
masturbated  he  at  first  denied  it,  but  when  told  that  the 
associations  gave  distinct  evidence  of  it,  he  said:  "Well, 
since  you  know  it,  I  may  as  well  tell  you.  I  began  to 
masturbate  when  I  was  fourteen  and  continued  it  up  to 
about  a  year  ago.  I  then  knew  what  harm  it  did  me 
and  I  stopped  it."  When  asked  in  what  way  it  affected 
him  he  said  that  he  read  or  was  told  that  one  is  liable  to 
get  paresis  and  many  other  diseases  from  it.     Ass.  27, 


234  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

"death — accidentally"  referred  to  his  attempted  suicide. 
He  fitly  remarked  "I  could  have  died  through  accident." 
Ass.  30,  "bad — very — night"  referred  to  the  night  of 
January  15,  which  he  claimed  to  have  passed  very  rest- 
lessly. He  was  frequently  terrified  by  his  rocking  chair, 
the  coverings  on  which  made  him  think  of  the  dying 
Bajazzo.  On  the  12th,  Mina  and  the  others  went  to 
see  Bajazzo.  He  was  to  have  gone,  but  at  the  last  moment 
he  changed  his  mind  and  remained  at  home.  This  also 
recalled  a  conversation  with  Dina.  She  told  him  that 
his  mania  for  originality,  etc.,  was  simply  a  desire  to  pose. 
He  retorted  by  saying:  "but  don't  you  think  that  there  is 
something  tragic  even  in  the  poser,  in  the  comedy-playing 
Bajazzos.  If  they  really  perceive  the  real  feeling,  such 
apparent  comedies  may  sometimes  lead  to  tragedies." 
Ass.  34,  "pretty — fairly"  referred  to  Mina.  Ass.  40, 
"to  crack — arms"  means  the  revolver  with  which  he 
attempted  suicide.  This  recalled  his  friend,  R.,  concern- 
ing whom  he  had  read  that  he  had  attempted  suicide  by 
shooting  himself  in  the  head.  This  happened  some  time 
before  the  Polish  dance,  and  on  the  day  of  the  dance  he 
received  a  letter  from  his  friend  describing  the  attempted 
suicide  and  stating  that  it  had  concerned  a  woman,  and 
that  he  was  well.  Ass.  47,  "weapon — unskilled"  refers 
to  himself.  He  said  "I  never  in  my  life  used  any  firearms 
,and  when  I  made  up  my  mind  to  kill  myself  I  selected  a 
pretty  little  revolver."  Ass.  48,  "forget — love."  He  said: 
"I  am  trying  to  forget  my  love."  Ass.  51,  "to  dare — to 
win"  was  not  explained.  He  began  to  speak  about  courage 
and  daring  and  he  suddenly  stopped,  not  wishing  to 
continue. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE   PSYCHOSES 


235 


Stimulus  Word 

Reaction 

Time 

Reprodtiction 

54.  Quick 

To  press 

2.4 

X 

55.  ChUd 

Big 

3.2 

X 

56.  Enjoy 

Life 

2.2 

X 

61.  Stone 

To  cast 

2.2 

X 

80.  To  understand 

Saying 

3.6 

X 

83.  Sofa 

To  sit 

2.8 

Girls 

87-  Snake 

Eve 

3.4 

X 

94.  To  write 

Feuilleton 

3.2 

Spirit 

95.  Horse 

Ghost 

3.0 

Rosmersholm 

Ass.  54,  "quick — to  press"  referred  to  his  suicide.  He 
was  frightened  when  he  grasped  the  revolver  so  that  he 
quickly  pulled  the  trigger.  Ass.  55,  "child — big."  Mina 
often  called  him  a  child,  which  greatly  offended  him  as 
he  considered  himself  a  man  "in  every  sense  of  the  word." 
Ass.  56,  "enjoy — life."  He  said  "I  was  tired  of  living 
and  wanted  to  die,  but  now  I  would  like  to  be  discharged 
so  as  to  enjoy  life.  Ass.  61,  "stone — to  cast"  recalled  the 
sentence:  "He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him 
cast  the  first  stone."  He  always  condemned  persons 
who  committed  suicide.  He  never  liked  a  play  or  a  book 
where  the  heroes  ended  their  lives.  He  thought  of  writing 
a  different  ending  to  Ibsen's  Rosmersholm.  Ass.  80,  "to 
understand — saying" — the  saying  is,  "'To  understand  all  is 
to  forgive  all' — that  is  what  she  said  to  me  when  she 
rejected  my  proposal.  Her  friend  told  me  afterward  that 
she  was  abnormal  and  was  unable  to  love  any  man." 
Ass.  83,  "sofa — to  sit — girls"  referred  to  a  dream  which  he 
had  while  in  the  hospital  in  which  the  three  girls  were 
sitting  on  a  sofa,  etc.  Ass.  87,  "snake — Eve."  "A 
snake  was  the  cause  of  Eve's  fall,"  he  said.  "A  cat  and 
a  snake  are  symbols  of  falsehood."  Snake  made  him 
think   of   penis.     Ass.   94,    "to   write — feuilleton — spirit" 


236  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

he  explained  thus:  "When  I  decided  to  commit  suicide 
I  immediately  thought  of  writing  a  number  of  articles, 
one  a  dialogue,  a  witty  interview  between  A.  St.,  the 
collaborator  of  the  Pesti  Naplo  and  his  spirit.  I  also 
intended  to  write  to  Dina  that  just  as  Tshepurnoy  (the 
reference  is  to  Gorky's  'Children  of  the  Sun')  saved  the 
honor  of  the  veterinary  surgeons  by  committing  suicide, 
I  saved  the  honor  of  the  'posers.'"  Ass.  95,  "horse — 
ghost — Rosmersholm"  referred  to  the  white  horses  which 
play  such  a  part  in  Ibsen's  Rosmersholm. 

A  brief  examination  of  these  associations  shows  that 
most  of  them  belong  to  the  erotic  complexes.  We  are 
also  struck  by  the  slight  emotivity  manifested  in  the 
associations  directly  concerned  with  the  love  episode. 
This  is  especially  striking  when  all  the  100  associations 
are  examined.  Indeed,  whereas  the  associations  evoked 
very  interesting  and  valuable  points  they  gave  us  very 
little  information  about  the  principal  episode,  the  supposed 
cause  of  this  whole  drama.  The  widest  emotional  excur- 
sions were  connected  with  the  complexes  extraneous 
to  this  episode.  From  the  twenty-nine  associations  given, 
twelve  (7,  16,  19,  27,  34,  40,  47,  48,  54,  56,  80  and  83) 
bear  directly  on  the  drama,  and  on  examination  we  find 
that  the  arithmetical  average  of  the  reaction  time  is  2.8 
seconds,  a  very  minimal  increase  over  the  normal,  and, 
furthermore,  there  is  only  one  failure  of  reproduction 
and  that  in  association  19.  This  last,  however,  does  not 
sensu  stricto,  belong  to  the  episode,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
so  that  the  average  is  still  more  reduced.  Translating 
this  into  association  language,  we  say  that  the  so-called 
complex-indicators  are  entirely  absent  where  you  would 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  237 

most  expect  them.  Indeed,  when  I  reviewed  the  100 
associations  originally  taken  I  found  that  the  twenty-nine 
selected  are  the  only  associations  that  in  any  way  concern 
the  case,  the  other  seventy-one  belonging  to  entirely 
different  complexes.  This  simply  indicates  that  there 
are,  perhaps,  other  more  forceful  factors  than  the  mere 
love  affair,  that  some  invisible  psychic  undercurrent  may 
play  a  greater  part  than  the  supposed  cause — love. 

If  we  orient  ourselves  on  the  incidents  appertaining  to 
this  love  affair  we  find  that  long  before  the  patient  became 
infatuated  with  Mina  he  was  acquainted  with  Dina.  In 
his  katamnestic  account  the  patient  says:  "I  was  attracted 
to  her — 'Dina — by  more  than  mere  sympathy.  She 
was  outspoken  and  called  me  a  poseur,  but  I  always  liked 
to  be  in  her  company."  Some  time  after  he  met  Mina 
and  Heda,  who  did  not  make  any  particular  impression  on 
him  and  it  was  not  until  the  Polish  dance  that  he  really 
became  acquainted  with  them.  The  first  part  of  the 
evening  he  had  no  predilection,  but  as  the  night  advanced 
Mina  attracted  him  more  than  her  friend.  On  going 
home  the  next  morning  he  walked  with  Mina  and  he  still 
was  in  the  "Hellenic  state,"  very  cheerful  and  frolicsome, 
but  nothing  was  said  of  love.  There  were,  however,  some 
allusions  to  "waltzing  through  life  together,"  but  that 
was  said  jocosely  and  in  company.  The  "Hellenic  state" 
he  described  as  follows:  "It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  no 
ponderance.  I  felt  infinitely  light,  ethereal  and  contrary 
to  my  wonted  cynicism  I  then  felt  infinitely  good,  well 
wishing  to  everything  and  everybody.  I  felt  neither  de- 
sire nor  wishes.  It  was  a  drop  of  the  blessed  sea  of  eternal 
contentment."     This  apathetic  euphoria  continued  until 


238  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Sunday  afternoon,  when  he  again  met  the  ladies  in  the 
company  of  a  gentleman.  For  some  reason  he  immediately 
took  a  dislike  to  this  man  and  his  euphoria  disappeared. 

On  returning  to  his  room  he  felt  "confused  and  could 
not  account  for  my  actions  of  last  night  and  today." 
He  tried  to  repose  for  a  few  hours,  as  he  had  an  appoint- 
ment with  his  friend  to  take  the  girls  to  the  theater  in  the 
evening,  but  he  was  exceedingly  restless  and  unable  to 
remain  in  the  room.  That  evening  he  went  to  the  theater, 
but  did  not  enjoy  himself  at  all.  The  following  days 
continued  uneventful.  He  frequently  saw  Mina  and 
her  friend  in  the  boarding  house,  but  had  no  serious 
thoughts.  On  the  contrary  he  recalled  that  on  one 
occasion  the  thought  of  love  came  to  him  and  he  immedi- 
ately suppressed  it,  saying  to  himself  "Do  not  delude 
yourself.  Be  careful  lest  you  lose  your  liberty.  It 
would  be  like  committing  suicide."  It  was  not  until  a 
few  days  before  she  was  to  leave  Zurich  for  her  Christmas 
vacation  that  he  was  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  he  was  in 
love.  He,  however,  doubted  it.  She  left  on  the  20th 
and  it  was  then  that  it  became  clear  to  him  that  he  loved 
her.  He  was  distracted,  indifferent  to  everything  and 
suddenly  conceived  the  idea  of  taking  to  his  bed.  Before 
doing  so  he  wrote  her  a  letter  in  which  he  told  her  all  and 
asked  for  a  categoric  answer.  He  remained  in  bed  for 
three  days  in  succession,  during  which  time  he  ate  but 
little  and  slept  less.  He  was  sure  that  she  would  reject 
his  proposal,  wept  much  and  was  obsessed  by  anxious 
thoughts.  He  then  got  up  and  immediately  visited  Dina. 
She  again  accused  him  of  being  a  poseur  and  he  said, 
"I  am  really  a  thorough  poseur,  I  can  delude  even  myself. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  239 

I  could  commit  most  terrible  acts,  such  as  marrying  or 
committing  suicide."  Following  this  visit  he  felt  better. 
Mina's  answer  was  rather  equivocal.  She  "did  not  know 
what  to  say,"  etc.  She  returned  on  January  4,  and 
"strange  to  say,  when  I  saw  her  not  only  was  I  not 
surprised,  but  I  even  seemed  to  be  indifferent."  He 
continued  to  see  her  regularly,  but  they  never  broached 
the  subject.  From  the  10th  he  was  very  excited  and 
had  some  fever  and  spent  most  of  the  time  in  bed.  "On 
the  14th  Mina  visited  me  and  during  our  conversa- 
tion she  told  me  that  she  did  not  think  she  could  be 
capable  of  loving  any  one.  She  left  me  at  11  p.m.  The 
rest  of  the  night  I  slept  fairly  well,  but  dreamed  of  Dina." 
The  following  days  he  was  very  depressed  and  rest- 
less, took  no  interest  in  anything,  ate  and  slept  very 
little.  On  the  17th,  while  walking  about  aimlessly,  he 
suddenly  decided  to  commit  suicide  and  at  the  same  time 
he  was  speculating  on  the  interesting  and  original  letters 
that  he  would  write  before  shooting  himself.  He  did  not 
know  what  he  would  write  to  Mina,  but  thought  of  writing 
to  Dina,  and  also  a  dialogue,  an  interview  between  himself 
and  his  spirit.  He  decided  to  buy  a  revolver.  "The 
money  that  I  expected  did  not  come,"  said  he.  "I  then 
went  to  see  Dina.  I  wanted  to  hear  her  repeat  that  I  was 
nothing  but  a  poseur,  but  she  was  not  at  home."  A  few 
hours  later  he  again  tried  to  visit  her,  but  she  was 
not  at  home.  The  following  day — the  18th — he  again 
called  on  her  and  again  missed  her.  Sunday  he  passed 
restlessly,  but  was  watched  by  a  colleague  who  suspected 
him.  On  Monday,  just  about  noon  time  he  made  the 
attempt.     He  waited  until  he  saw  Mina  and  Heda  go  into 


240  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  dining  room  and  then  ran  into  his  room,  undressed, 
and  went  to  bed.  He  did  not  lock  the  door  and  then 
attempted  suicide  as  described  above. 

Analysis. — Strange  as  it  may  seem  psychoanalysis 
shows  that  the  love  affair  played  a  very  little,  if  any  part, 
in  this  whole  syndrome.  No  matter  how  a  person  may  try 
to  conceal  things  he  cannot  hide  his  emotions  and  uncon- 
scious actions.  The  associations,  like  dreams,  never  lie. 
The  complex  indicators  never  fail  to  show  the  complex, 
that  is,  the  emotionally  accentuated  presentations  which 
are  usually  split  off  from  consciousness  and  repressed  in 
the  unconscious.  On  superficial  examination  it  may  seem 
that  the  psychosis  was  caused  by  the  love  affair,  but  as 
soon  as  we  enter  more  deeply  into  the  question  we  are 
struck  with  the  marked  disproportion  between  the  exciting 
cause  and  the  reaction  and  we  ask  ourselves  why  should 
an  insignificant  love  episode  produce  a  psychosis  in  a 
young  man  who  has  made  his  way  in  the  world  since  his 
fifteenth  year  as  a  student  and  journalist  and  who,  from 
his  own  account,  has  had  similar  experiences  before  this? 
To  be  sure  there  are  those  who  maintain  that  just  this 
incongruity  between  noopsyche  and  thymopsyche  is 
characteristic  of  dementia  prsecox,  but  one  of  the  greatest 
achievements  of  psychoanalysis  is  the  fact  that  it  conclu- 
sively shows  that  in  neither  the  psychoneurosis  nor  the 
psychoses  proper  is  there  such  a  thing  as  incongruity 
between  noopsyche  and  thymopsyche.  Wherever  a 
thorough  examination  is  possible  it  is  always  found  that 
the  reaction  is  quite  adequate  and  that  it  simply  appears 
incongruous  to  us  because  we  cannot  or  do  not  enter  into 
the  patient's  psyche.     Moreover,  when  we  examine  our 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE   PSYCHOSES  241 

patient's  past  we  find  that  long  before  this  last  experience 
he  was  depressed  and  listless,  remaining  in  bed  for  days  at 
a  time  and  that  he  evinced  many  peculiar  actions.  All 
this  distinctly  shows  that  the  love  episode  was  only  one  of 
many  contributing  exciting  factors. 

On  reviewing  the  100  associations  we  find  that  they 
refer  to  four  principal  complexes,  namely,  love,  vanity, 
death  and  masturbation.  Of  these  thirty-five  belong  to 
the  death  complex,  twenty  to  the  complex  of  masturba- 
tion, twelve  to  the  vanity  complex,  and  twelve  to  the  love 
episode.  In  other  words,  death  and  masturbation  are 
of  paramount  importance  while  the  love  episode  plays 
only  a  subordinate  part. 

The  love  complex  we  have  already  discussed,  and  of  his 
vanity  both  he  himself  and  his  father  stated  that  he  was 
always  very  vain  and  of  an  independent  nature.  He 
stated  "I  am  not  of  an  emotional  nature.  My  parents 
reproached  me  for  being  heartless,  vain  and  cold,  sajdng 
that  my  blood  was  as  cold  as  that  of  an  EngUshman  and 
that  I  was  too  independent."  The  wounding  of  his  vanity 
was  always  associated  with  his  suicide.  In  his  katamnestic 
account  he  stated:  "I  was  suddenly  struck  with  the  idea  of 
committing  suicide  and  I  immediately  tried  to  find  Dina 
so  as  to  evoke  from  her  the  oft-repeated  statement  that  I 
was  a  'thorough  irremediable  poseur.'"  He  was  also 
chagrined  by  Mina  because  she  called  him  "child."  He 
insisted  that  he  was  a  man  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word. 

Psychoanalysis  of  the  complexes  of  death  showed  that 
for  some  inexpHcable  reason  the  patient  had  for  some  time 
both  consciously  and  unconsciously,  occupied  himself 
with   the   problem   of   death.     When   asked   to   associate 

16 


242  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

freely  to  the  word  "death"  he  gave  the  following  reactions: 
"When  we  dead  awaken" — he  recalled  his  friend  the 
actor,  who  was  supposed  to  have  blown  out  his  brains — 
Rosemersholm.  On  further  analysis  we  found  that  "  when 
we  dead  awaken"  refers  to  Ibsen's  drama  of  that  title. 
He  stated  that  for  some  time  this  play  strongly  appealed 
to  him,  but  since  reading  Rosraersholm  the  latter  had 
exerted  a  greater  influence  over  him.  He,  however,  did 
not  like  the  last  act,  and  thought  seriously  of  rewriting  the 
play,  giving  it  another  ending.  He  despised  persons  like 
Rosmer  and  Rebecca  for  committing  suicide.  "They  are 
not  people  of  this  world,"  he  said,  "they  belong  to  the 
morbid,  fanatic  and  romantic  nations,"  While  in  the 
hospital  he  wrote  to  the  author:  "Do  I  perhaps  suffer 
from  neurasthenia  or  am  I  in  the  first  stage  of  paresis? 
If  so  I  will  see  that  it  will  not  progress."  In  a  letter  which 
he  sent  to  his  father  long  before  this  love  episode  occurred 
he  signed  himself  "Candidate  for  Paresis."  Moreover,  for 
the  previous  year  or  so  he  signed  his  feuilletins  with  the 
following  pseudonyms  "Schakal,"  "Sansdieu,"  "Enfant 
Terrible"  and  "Sansculotte."  Those  who  are  unfamiHar 
with  Freud's  "  Psychopathology  of  Every  Day  Life  "^^  may 
consider  our  patient's  use  of  the  pseudonyms  as  purely 
accidental,  but  we  know  that  nothing  is  adventitious  or 
arbitrary.  Just  such  triviahties  show  us  the  real  uncon- 
scious activity.  These  pseudonyms  are  the  equivalent  for 
"  I  am  a  jackal,  godless,"  etc.  That  is  to  say,  they  represent 
ideas  of  self-accusation. 

All  this  clearly  shows  that  long  before  the  love  episode 
the  patient  was  hypochondriacal  and  restless.  He 
entertained  a  number  of  delusions  of  a   depressive,  soma- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  243 

topsychic  and  self-accusatory  nature.  He  made  a  num- 
ber of  unsuccessful  attempts  to  stop  masturbating,  for 
he  thought  that  it  would  produce  paresis,  and  when  he 
finally  noticed  a  sHght  difference  in  the  size  of  his  eyes 
he  became  firmly  convinced  that  he  was  a  paretic.  He 
also  heard  and  read  much  about  paresis  and,  as  we  have 
shown,  he  soon  began  to  occupy  himself  with  the  problem  of 
death.  Therefore,  anything  referring  to  it  interested 
him.  It  was  while  in  that  state  of  mind  that  he  fell  in 
love  with  Mina  and  for  a  brief  period  there  was  a  reaction, 
the  "Hellenic  state."  This,  however,  soon  disappeared 
and  long  before  he  knew  that  his  love  would  not  be 
reciprocated  he  again  became  depressed.  This  love 
episode  was  simply  the  "last  straw  to  break  the  camel's 
back."  That  is,  the  conflict  probably  existed  for  years 
until  finally  a  compromise  formation  took  place  and  the 
result  was  the  suicidal  episode. 

The  situation,  in  brief,  was  as  follows:  "I  am  suffering 
from  an  incurable  disease — paresis — which  I  brought 
upon  myself  by  masturbation  and  as  I  will  become  insane 
I  had  better  commit  suicide."  Added  to  that  there  was 
the  wounding  of  his  vanity  by  both  Dina  and  Mina. 

Against  all  this,  however,  there  was  the  inherent  desire 
to  live.  One  may  say  that  the  long-existing  conflict 
in  a  personal  predisposition  finally  produced  a  splitting 
of  consciousness,  or  Janet's  ahaissement  du  niveau  mental, 
thus  allowing  the  repressed  complexes  to  rid  themselves  of 
the  domination  of  the  ego  complex  and  then  manifest 
themselves  in  the  different  automatisms  of  the  syndrom.  ^^ 

Let  us  now  examine  the  psychic  constellations  of  the 
individual    symptoms.     In    the    first    place,  we  may  ask 


244  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

why  the  patient  chose  this  method  of  suicide?  This  was 
directly  suggested  to  him  by  the  shooting  episode  in  the 
hfe  of  his  friend,  the  actor.  He,  himself,  had  never  before 
handled  any  firearm  and  there  was  absolutely  no  reason 
why  he  should  have  deferred  this  affair  as  he  did  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  money  to  buy  a  revolver.  He  had 
numerous  other  means  within  his  reach.  He  could  at 
any  time  have  resorted  to  hanging,  drowning  or  poisoning, 
which  would  have  been  easier  to  accomplish.  Still  he 
selected  a  method  which  was  entirely  foreign  to  him. 
When  he  bought  the  revolver  he  had  to  ask  the  storekeeper 
for  instructions  as  to  its  use.  I  have  it  from  Dr.  M.  S. 
Gregory,  who  has  devoted  considerable  time  to  the  subject, 
that  suicides  invariably  follow  a  definite  procedure.  Thus 
soldiers  and  others  who  are  accustomed  to  firearms  always 
select  pistols  or  revolvers  for  suicidal  purposes;  physicians, 
druggists  and  chemists  invariably  use  poison,  while  ordinary 
persons  follow  some  method  suggested  by  suicidal  incidents 
read  in  the  daily  press  or  they  imitate  some  relative  or 
friend.  The  same  day  that  he  attended  the  Polish  dance  he 
received  a  letter  from  his  friend,  telling  him  that  he  was 
alive  and  well,  though  he  had  attempted  to  blow  out  his 
brains  on  account  of  a  woman. 

According  to  Freud  all  delusional  formations  and  actions 
are  the  result  of  a  compromise.  There  are  two  psychic 
streams  opposing  each  other  and  finally  each  yields  a  part 
of  its  demand  and  a  mutual  accommodation  results.  Our 
patient's  suicidal  attempt  was  merely  symbolic.  He 
really  did  not  wish  to  terminate  his  life,  though  he  wished 
to  die.     He  simply  wished  to  annihilate  that  part  of  him- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  245 

self  which  was  most  repugnant  to  him  and  which  was 
responsible  for  his  malady. 

Association  19  shows  that  the  patient  aimed  directly  at 
the  candle.  On  being  asked  to  associate  to  candle  he 
gave  the  following:  "It  recalls  to  me  a  picture  of  a  big 
candle,  a  big  white  candle  on  a  dark  background.  Candles 
always  make  me  feel  disagreeable.  I  used  to  avoid  passing 
a  certain  store  where  there  was  a  show  case  filled  with 
candles.  The  burning  candles  with  the  dripping  tallow 
which  I  used  to  see  in  churches  and  temples  nauseated  me. 
That  recalled  a  girl  named  'Baby  S. '  whom  I  used  to 
know — that's  all."  When  asked  about  this  girl  he  showed 
numerous  blockings  and  then  continued:  "She  was  anaemic 
and  they  used  to  say  that — that  she  candled  herself." 
Again  blockings,  but  after  considerable  urging  he  stated 
that  a  candle  with  the  dripping  tallow  recalls  the  penis 
after  masturbation,  a  thing  which  always  filled  him  with 
disgust.  The  resistance  was  broken  and  he  frankly  added: 
"That  has  been  the  bane  of  my  life.  I  have  not  done 
it  for  a  year  because  I  was  told  that  it  would  cause  paresis." 

The  candle,  as  we  see,  is  simply  a  symbohc  representa- 
tion of  the  penis.  This  is  a  familiar  and  widespread  sym- 
bol, both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  The  general  popular 
belief  that  a  virgin  can  relight  with  her  breath  a  candle 
recently  extinguished  probably  owes  its  origin  to  the 
same  symbolic  expressions^  (relight  with  her  breath  a 
candle — reawaken  lost  sexual  powers). 

Thus  we  see  the  reason  for  his  aiming  at  the  candle.  In 
destroying  the  candle  he  killed  that  part  of  himself  which 
is  at  the  basis  of  all  his  trouble. 

Why  did  he  aim  at  Ibsen's  picture?     In  order  to  under- 


246  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

stand  this  it  is  necessary  to  cite  a  fragment  of  a  long  dream 
which  the  patient  had  while  in  the  hospital.  It  was  as 
follows:  "I  got  a  harp  and  played  something  melancholic 
and  the  doctor  stood  there  watching  me  and  then  ex- 
claimed, 'Behold  a  lion's  head  arising  on  a  feeble  body/ 
and  then  wishing  to  hide  his  feelings  he  turned  away." 
According  to  Freud,  whenever  one  hears  some  speech  in  the 
dream  it  generally  signifies  that  the  dreamer  has  heard  at 
some  time  the  exact  or  similar  words.  The  words  which 
he  puts  in  the  doctor's  mouth  he  actually  heard  from  the 
doctor.  On  seeing  the  patient  for  the  first  time,  while  he 
was  still  in  the  somnolent  state,  I  was  struck  by  the  size 
of  his  head  and  I  remarked  to  the  supervisor  "He  looks 
ill  and  is  underdeveloped.  His  head  seems  too  big  for  his 
body."  In  the  dream  this  is  changed  to  a  lion's  head. 
On  analyzing  the  expression  "lion's  head"  we  obtained 
the  following:  "Head  of  a  Hon — Max  Lieberman,  a  German 
painter,  made  a  picture  of  a  sphinx  with  the  head  of  Ibsen 
on  it — it  looks  like  a  lion's  head — thinks  of  his  own  head 
which  he  believes  "perhaps  resembles  Ibsen's  head.' 
On  further  analysis  he  identified  himself  directly  with  the 
great  poet  and  stated  that  he  noticed  the  resemblance 
between  himself  and  Ibsen  and  that  is  why  he  bought 
the  picture.  We  can  now  understand  why  he  shot  at  the 
picture,  for  in  doing  so  he  again  symbolically  shot  himself. 
We  also  know  that  for  more  than  a  year  he  took  great 
interest  in  Ibsen's  works,  especially  "When  We  Dead 
Awaken"  and  "Rosmersholm."  This,  too,  as  mentioned 
above,  is  a  symbohc  action.  The  title  of  the  former  play 
appealed  to  him  because,  believing  that  he  was  suffering 
from  an  incurable  disease  and  that  he  would  soon  die,  he 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    AND    THE    PSYCHOSES  247 

naturally  speculated  on  "When  We  Dead  Awaken." 
Such  symbolic  actions  are  frequently  observed  in  every- 
day life.  Only  within  a  few  days  the  daily  press  reported 
the  case  of  a  New  York  embezzler  who  was  discovered  by 
detectives  in  a  Philadelphia  pubhc  library.  The  book 
which  he  was  reading  at  the  time  of  his  arrest  was  entitled 
"Will  I  Ever  Go  Back?"  Rosmersholm,  too,  appealed  to 
him  because  he  directly  identified  himself  with  Rosmer 
'  the  happy  nobleman  who  goes  to  death,"  but  as  the 
"will  to  live"  always  predominated  in  him  he  at  first  dis- 
liked the  suicide  of  the  lovers  and  even  thought  of  re- 
writing the  last  act. 

What  was  the  origin  of  the  stereotype  "Where  are  the 
white  horses?"  Those  who  have  read  Ibsen's  drama  will 
recall  that  whenever  a  death  occurred  in  Rosmersholm 
the  white  horse  was  sure  to  make  its  appearance.  As  our 
patient  identified  himself  with  Rosmer  and  lived  through 
the  tragic  end  of  the  "happy  nobleman"  he  looked  for 
the  white  horse  in  his  delirium  and  hence  the  stereotyped 
question,  "Where  are  the  white  horses?" 

Thus  we  see  that  there  was  nothing  mysterious  or  sense- 
less in  our  patient's  actions.  All  these  actions  and  utter- 
ances had  a  reason  and  followed  the  same  course  as  that 
of  any  normal  individual.  Indeed,  those  who  make  use 
of  the  psychoanalytic  method  are  well  aware  of  the  fact 
that  whenever  the  patient's  mind  can  be  entered  he  ceases 
to  be  an  enigma  and  his  "senseless  actions  and  utterances" 
cease  to  appear  senseless.  On  the  contrary  we  are  often 
struck  with  the  purposeful,  nay  ingenious,  construction  of 
the  whole  scheme.  Moreover,  we  are  always  sure  to  miss 
— that  "garbage  can"  of  mental  diseases — the  "dementia" 


248  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

which  is  supposed  to  be  the  main  characteristic  of  the  dis- 
ease. I  have  not  seen  a  single  analyzable  case  of  dementia 
praecox  that  showed  any  dementia.  Those  cases  whose 
minds  we  cannot  penetrate  merely  because  the  patients 
refuse  to  cooperate  with  us  we  are  hardly  justified  in 
calling  ''demented."  Every  careful  observer  will  recall 
that  now  and  then  a  "dement,"  who  has  been  noted  for 
years  with  the  familiar  formula  "No  change,  dull,  stupid, 
and  demented,"  suddenly  loses  his  dementia  and  acts  in  a 
perfectly  rational  manner.  I  can  now  recall  three  cases 
of  dementia  praecox  that  I  observed  in  the  Central  Islip 
State  Hospital  which  were  "demented"  two,  three  and 
five  years,  respectively,  and  then  practically  recovered, 
which  led  me  to  beheve  in  the  truth  of  the  statement  that 
dementia  praecox  is  often  "neither  a  dementia  nor  a  prae- 
cox." The  works  of  the  Zurich  school  and  of  other  inves- 
tigators have  amply  demonstrated  these  facts  and  it  is  for 
these  reasons  that  my  former  chief.  Prof.  Bleuler,  to  whom  I 
am  indebted  for  these  cases,  repudiates  this  meaningless 
term,  dementia  praecox,  and  uses  Schizophrenia.^^ 

References 

1.  Diagnostiche  Assoziations  Studien,  Vol.  I,  Barth,  Leipzig,  1906. 

2.  Translated  by  A.  A.   Brill,  American  Journal  of  Psychology, 
April,  1910. 

3.  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria,  p.  194. 

4.  Janet:  Les  Obsessions  et  la  Psychasthenic,  Paris,  1903. 

5.  The  Psychology  of  Dementia  Praecox.     Translated  by  Peterson 
and  Brill. 

6.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  165. 

7.  Jung:  L.  c. 

8.  C/.  Chap.  IV. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   AND   THE    PSYCHOSES  249 

9.  Bewusstsein   u.    Assoziation,    Diagnost.    Assoziations   Studien, 
Beitrag  V.  and  Jung,  L.  c. 

10.  The   Interpretation   of   Dream,    Translated   by   A.   A.    Brill, 
George  Allen,  London,  and  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York. 

11.  Cf.  Chap.  II. 

12.  Jung:  L.  c. 

13.  Liebman:  Christhchen  Symbolic,  p.  76,  Leipzig,  Reklam  Ed. 

14.  Bleuler:  Schizophrenie,  Deuticke,  Wien,  1911.     Cf.  also  Manual 
of  Psychiatry  translation  in  preparation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

STUDIES  IN  PARAPHRENIA  OR  THE  MILDER  PSY- 
CHOTIC STATES 

During  the  last  twelve  years  I  had  occasion  to  study  a 
number  of  cases  which  one  might  call  mild  mental  disturb- 
ances. They  concerned  patients  who  were  apparently 
well  but  who  were  considered  by  friends  and  relatives  as 
"peculiar,  crazy,  or  eccentric."  As  a  rule  such  patients 
seek  no  treatment  and  most  of  them  undoubtedly  go 
through  life  without  being  seen  by  any  physicians.  Occa- 
sionally, however,  they  are  brought  to  us  involuntarily, 
and  not  seldom  we  see  them  because  they  are  interested  in 
"psychic"  matters  and  wish  to  discuss  their  ideas  with 
persons  who  write  on  such  subjects.  Of  the  many  cases 
seen  by  me  I  feel  that  most  of  them  belong  to  a  class  of 
patients  which  might  be  designated  as  mildly  paraphrenic 
and  their  disease  as  paraphrenia. 

I  use  this  term  here  in  the  same  more  or  less  indefinite 

sense  as  one  finds  it  among  all  writers  on  the  subject. 

Kraepelin's  Paranoiden  Verhlodungen  (paraphrenias)  have 

never  impressed  me  as  something  clean  cut  and  clear;  on  the 

contrary  every  case  that  I  have  finally  put  into  this  group 

could  easily  have  been  added  to  the  paranoid  form  of 

dementia  prsecox,  or  better  to  the  cases  we  used  to  designate 

in  the  New  York  State  Hospitals,  following  Doctor  Adolph 

Meyer's  suggestion,   as   alHed   to   dementia   prsecox.     In 

using  this  term,  I  am  also  thinking  of  the  suggestions  made 

250 


STUDIES    IN    PARAPHRENIA  251 

by  Professor  Bleuler  and  Professor  Freud,  who  wish  to 
designate  the  entire  dementia  prsecox  group  as  schizophrenia 
and  paraphrenia,  respectively.  The  cases  under  considera- 
tion, although  they  are  not  typical  prsecoxes  or  para- 
phrenias, are  very  similar  to  them  and  surely  would  not  fit 
into  any  other  group.  A  brief  description  of  a  case  might 
serve  as  an  example. 

Case. — W.  M.,  aged  forty-six,  single,  an  expert  in  a  big 
concern. 

He  was  brought  to  me  in  1914  by  a  member  of  the  firm  employing  him 
because  he  was  considered  very  nervous.  People  who  knew  him  well 
considered  him  somewhat  eccentric  but  never  imagined  that  he  was  in 
any  way  mentally  wrong.  My  informant  stated  that  the  patient  had 
been  with  the  firm  almost  thirty  years,  and  that  although  his  accom- 
plishments were  not  of  a  kind  to  produce  great  changes  in  the  business 
he  was  a  "steady,  very  reUable,  and  verj'  methodical  person."  Indeed 
he  was  so  methodical  that  very  few  people  could  get  along  with  him. 
When  something  even  trifling  was  done  that  was  not  exactly  to  his 
liking  he  would  become  very  angry  and  almost  furious  over  it.  He 
would  keep  up  his  tantrum  for  daj^  and  weeks  so  that  it  was  often 
necessary  to  remove  from  his  oflSce  the  person  who  displeased  him, 
though  it  was  recognized  that  there  was  hardly  any  offense.  For  the 
last  eight  j'ears  he  came  into  business  contact  with  five  people  only, 
the  member  of  the  firm  who  brought  him  to  me,  two  clerks  who  were 
described  as  very  tactful,  and  two  managers  who  had  been  with  the 
firm  for  years  and  "who  knew  how  to  manage  him."  His  employer 
told  me  that  if  it  were  not  a  question  of  sentiment  the  patient  would 
have  been  discharged  long  ago,  he  was  considered  a  verj'  diflScult 
person  to  get  along  with  and  more  or  less  of  a  nuisance  that  one  had 
to  tolerate.  For  years  he  was  urged  to  retire  on  a  substantial  pension, 
and  as  he  had  accumulated  considerable  money  on  account  of  his 
r^ular  habits  and  unpretentious  living  he  could  have  lived  in  more 
than  comfort,  but  he  refused  to  leave  the  business.  In  answer  to 
my  question,  his  employer  stated  that  if  it  were  not  for  his  peculiarity 
he  would  be  considered  quite  useful  to  the  firm,  that  whatever  he  did 
was  well  done  and  that  he  possessed  a  certain  amount  of  knowledge 


252  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

about  a  particular  branch  of  the  business  which  was  valuable  to  the 
firm. 

The  immediate  cause  of  his  being  brought  to  me  was  this:  On  his 
return  from  a  short  vacation  he  found  that  his  old  office  chair  was 
replaced  by  a  new  one.  He  simply  could  not  endure  the  new  chair, 
he  insisted  that  his  old  one  be  returned  to  him,  and  as  this  was 
impossible — the  chair  had  meanwhile  been  disposed  of — he  became 
very  nervous  and  excitable,  and  for  a  time  was  unable  to  attend  to  his 
work.  This  chair,  I  was  told,  must  have  been  used  by  the  patient 
for  at  least  twenty  years;  it  was  just  worn  out,  as  if  dying  of  old  age; 
for  years  attempts  were  made  to  furnish  him  a  more  comfortable 
chair  but  he  objected,  and  as  it  was  considered  unsafe  to  let  him  use 
it  any  longer,  advantage  was  taken  of  his  absence  to  have  it  removed 
and  replaced  by  a  comfortable  office  chair.  The  episode  just  described 
occurred  about  six  weeks  before  the  patient  was  brought  to  me  and  he 
was  still  inconsolable  over  it.  He  thought  it  was  a  mean  trick 
and  attributed  it  to  the  hostility  of  the  manager  of  the  purchasing 
department.  He  saw  no  real  reason  for  coming  to  me,  he  admitted 
that  he  was  a  bit  nervous  at  times,  but  as  his  employer  insisted  that 
he  should  put  himself  under  my  care  he  was  quite  willing  to  do  so. 
We  gradually  became  used  to  each  other,  and  as  he  had  been  under 
my  care  for  a  few  months  I  learned  to  know  quite  a  little  concerning 
his  mental  structure. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  of  Dutch-English  stock.  His  mother 
was  considered  nervous,  his  father  was  a  drinker.  Nothing  else  could 
be  found  in  his  heredity.  He  was  the  second  in  the  family  of  three 
children;  both  his  older  and  younger  sisters  were  married  and  normal 
as  far  as  one  could  see.  His  sister,  who  was  his  senior  by  six  years, 
told  me  that  the  patient  had  always  been  a  reserved  person,  that 
even  as  a  boy  he  had  but  few  playmates,  that  he  never  had  what  one 
calls  chums,  that  he  always  minded  his  own  business  and  that  he 
was  considered  by  the  family  a  very  well  behaved  boy  and  a  quiet 
young  man.  She  could  not  give  much  information  about  his  child- 
hood or  early  boyhood  although  she  was  as  close  to  him  as  anybody 
and  knew  much  about  his  later  life.  She  added  that  he  had  always 
been  very  quiet,  not  very  affectionate,  and  very  obstinate.  At  the 
age  of  fourteen  he  graduated  from  public  school  and  as  the  father 
was  incapacitated  through  drink  and  the  mother  was  ailing  it  was 
found  necessary  to  send  him  to  work.     All  this  information  was 


STUDIES  IN   PARAPHRENIA  253 

verified  by  the  patient.  He  worked  for  brief  periods  in  two  other 
places  before  he  entered  the  present  firm.  His  second  sister  also 
volunteered  the  information  that  he  was  never  known  to  have  been  in 
love,  that  he  was  not  at  all  a  ladies'  man,  that  he  was,  however,  quite 
attached  to  his  parents  and  although  not  demonstrative,  was  very 
generous  to  his  sisters.  The  family  was  not  brought  up  religiously, 
so  that  the  patient  was  not  attached  to  any  church.  He  said  that  he 
had  a  rehgion  of  his  own  which  was  "Mind  your  own  business." 
When  I  asked  him  how  he  occupied  his  leisure  time  he  said  that  he 
was  fond  of  reading  philosophy  (he  had  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  subject), 
that  he  occasionally  went  to  the  movies  and  the  theatre.  He  was 
well  informed  on  the  topics  of  the  day  but  took  only  a  superficial 
interest  in  things;  he  paid  Uttle  attention  to  the  war  but  became 
irritable  when,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times,  his  firm  had  to 
make  many  changes  in  its  business  methods.  He  himself  told  me  that 
he  was  considered  a  miser  but  that  it  was  not  true,  that  he  really 
did  not  care  for  money  but  "people  nowadays  constantly  impose 
upon  you."  His  attitude  and  manner  appeared  quite  normal.  He 
seemed  alert  when  spoken  to,  was  very  poUte,  looked  very  neat  in 
appearance,  but  one  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  he  did  not  keep  up 
with  the  times  in  the  manner  of  dressing.  His  clothes  undoubtedly 
belonged  to  the  last  generation.  He  told  me  that  he  had  them  made  to 
order  and  that  he  did  not  believe  in  changing  styles  so  often,  he  con- 
sidered it  a  sign  of  effeminacy.  His  insight  as  to  his  mental  condition 
was  poor,  although  he  realized  that  he  was  slightly  nervous  and  that 
people  thought  him  eccentric. 

To  sum  up,  we  have  here  a  man  of  forty-six  years  who, 
except  for  chronic  constipation,  presented  nothing  to  note 
in  the  physical  or  neurological  field;  mentally,  however,  he 
showed  a  picture  which  could  be  designated  as  paraphrenia 
or  schizophrenia.  There  was  a  dulled  affectivity,  some 
weakness  of  judgment,  and  a  restricted  capacity  for  work. 
There  was  no  dilapidation  of  the  inner  unity  of  the  psychic 
life,  nor  did  he  manifest  any  of  the  accessory  disturbances  of 
schizophrenia  described  by  Bleuler  (1).  As  far  as  one  could 
discover  by  ordinary  examinations  he  at  no  time  evinced  any 


254  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

active  hallucinations  or  delusions.  The  last  statement 
might  be  slightly  modified  for,  as  I  have  stated,  the  patient 
showed  transitory  ideas  of  mild  persecution,  and  close 
association  showed  that  he  was  often  controlled  by  mild 
ideas  of  reference.  What  struck  one  forcibly  was  the  fact 
that  the  patient  seemed  to  be  very  restricted  in  his  interest, 
that  he  was  not  at  all  moldable,  that  he  was  unable  to 
adjust  himself  to  new  situations  or  ideas,  that  he  seemed  to 
be  emotionally  congealed;  anything  unusual  could  only  take 
place  in  the  form  of  an  outburst,  as  if  something  had  to  be 
torn  off  or  cut  into;  it  took  him  some  time  to  get  over  any 
affect,  but  once  the  situation  was  accepted  he  seemed 
to  forget  all  about  it.  There  were  many  other  episodes 
like  the  one  mentioned  into  which  we  need  not  enter  here. 
Not  all  of  my  patients  were  of  this  type;  some  showed  a 
deeper  development  of  the  symptoms.  A  number  of 
patients  passed  through  one  or  several  hallucinatory 
episodes  lasting  a  short  period  without  attracting  attention; 
others  represented  a  milder  type  than  the  case  described, 
they  had  considerable  insight,  usually  realizing  that  they 
needed  help  and  invariably  came  to  me  of  their  own  accord. 
Some  of  them  thought  of  it  for  years  before  they  finally 
decided  to  consult  me.  In  a  much  milder  form  they 
represented  almost  all  the  reaction  types  so  excellently 
described  by  Adolph  Meyer  (2).  None  of  my  patients  had 
ever  been  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane,  and  only  a  few  had 
ever  been  under  a  doctor's  care.  The  reasons  for  their 
coming  to  me  were  very  bizarre  to  say  the  least.  Thus  a 
woman  of  thirty-five  had  a  theory  as  to  how  she  could  be 
cured.  She  felt  that  her  organs  were  almost  dead,  they 
were  rotten  and  distorted,  that  her  brain  was  full  of  de- 


STUDIES   IN    PARAPHRENIA  255 

cayed  material  and  entertained  other  similar  ideas.  She 
suggested  that  some  one  like  myself  should  take  her  under 
his  care,  keep  her  secluded  in  the  dark  without  any  nourish- 
ment until  she  was  at  the  point  of  death,  and  then  by  a  very 
complex  system  of  ceremonies  which  she  had  carefully 
elaborated,  bring  her  back  to  life,  "as  a  new,  perfect  and 
superior  being."  Even  those  closest  to  her  had  no  inkling 
of  her  symptoms. 

A  man  of  about  thirty-eight  years  sought  treatment 
because  his  mother's  teeth  annoyed  him  so  much  that  he 
constantly  entertained  fancies  of  murdering  her.  Another 
man  came  to  me  because  he  had  read  something  about 
psychoanalysis  and  felt  that  he  had  always  known  all 
about  it,  except  that  his  own  method  acted  so  much  swifter 
than  psychoanalysis.  He  could  cure  any  form  of  insanity 
in  a  few  days. 

Those  who  were  brought  to  me  usually  refused  to  be 
treated,  though  in  quite  a  number  I  succeeded  in  arousing 
enough  affect  to  keep  their  interest  for  a  while  at  least. 
I  have  in  mind  a  young  boy  of  nineteen  who  finally  con- 
sented to  call  on  me  because  he  was  anxious  that  I  should 
explain  some  hallucinatory  episodes  which  he  experienced. 
He  delved  much  in  literature  dealing  with  psychic  phe- 
nomena and  imagined  that  he  himself  possessed  super- 
natural powers.  He  was  very  suspicious,  mildly  delusional, 
and  showed  considerable  impairment  of  judgment  and 
insight.  He  hated  his  father,  was  entirely  indifferent  to  his 
mother  and  had  absolutely  no  relations  with  his  classmates; 
nevertheless,  he  managed  to  go  through  college  and  neither 
parent  considered  him  worse  than  eccentric.  I  have  seen 
him  on  and  off  now  for  over  six  years  and  there  seems  to  be 


256  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

very  little  change  in  his  condition.  He  is  a  chemist  and  has 
kept  a  steady  position  since  graduation.  He  is  very  me- 
thodical, apparently  doing  well  whatever  is  assigned  to  him, 
but  in  five  years  his  salary  was  raised  only  once.  He  seems 
perfectly  contented.  He  takes  absolutely  no  interest  in  the 
opposite  sex,  though  he  occasionally  has  erotic  dreams  in 
connection  with  urination  and  defecation.  This  mechanism 
is  often  seen  in  the  erotic  dreams  of  praecox  types.  Object 
love  seems  to  be  undeveloped  or  repressed  and  their  erotic 
fancies  and  dreams  remain  on  an  infantile  basis. 

The  cases  whose  histories  do  not  show  any  distinct 
episode  are  often  quite  difficult  to  diagnose  from  psychoneu- 
roses.  Indeed,  I  have  often  diagnosed  such  cases  as 
hysterias  and  compulsion  neuroses  only  to  find  out  after 
months  that  I  had  been  mistaken.  My  experience  taught 
me  that  one  must  be  very  careful  in  venturing  an  opinion 
before  the  patient  has  been  carefully  studied  for  at  least  a 
month.  I  feel,  however,  that  even  in  the  mildest  cases 
where  the  patients  seem  to  show  distinct  hysterical  reactions, 
a  diagnosis  can  usually  be  made  within  a  few  weeks.  With- 
out going  into  a  detailed  differential  diagnosis  I  will  give 
a  few  salient  points.  Bleuler  urges  that  no  diagnosis  should 
be  made  without  knowing  the  patient's  complexes;  in  mild 
cases  this  sometimes  takes  a  long  time.  I  usually  guide 
myself  by  the  transference.  The  psychoneurotic  usually 
gets  a  good  transference — positive  or  negative — after  a  few 
interviews.  He  or  she  either  likes  or  dislikes  the  physician 
in  a  normal  manner.  The  paraphrenic  either  shows  no 
affect,  or  it  evinces  itself  in  a  morbid  and  very  inadequate 
way.  For  over  nine  years  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  put- 
ting this  question  to  all  my  patients:  "What  personage 


STUDIES    IN    PARAPHRENIA  257 

from  history  or  legend  do  you  admire  most,  or  who  is  your 
ideal?"  Besides  those  from  my  patients  I  have  also  col- 
lected answers  from  friends  and  acquaintances  and  from 
school  children  and  college  students.  The  findings  are 
very  interesting.  My  assumption  is  that  the  person  we 
admire  most,  who  is  our  ideal,  is  the  one  with  whom  we 
consciously  or  unconsciously  identify  ourselves,  whose  type 
of  reaction  appeals  to  us,  and  whom  we  constantly  endeavor 
to  emulate.  Now  it  will  interest  you  to  know  that  most  of 
the  intelligent  American  test  persons  answered:  Napoleon; 
Lincoln  and  Washington  came  next.  (3)  The  answer  also 
shows  the  type  of  transference  that  appeals  to  the  person. 
Psychoneurotics  answer  like  non-nervous  individuals,  while 
paraphrenics  either  cannot  answer  the  question,  they  say 
they  have  no  ideals,  or  what  is  more  often  the  case  they 
select  a  person  after  considerable  hesitation  but  soon  change 
their  minds  and  give  some  other  name;  a  few  days  later  they 
suddenly  think  of  it  again  and  feel  badly  over  their  selection. 
The  personages  they  select  are  not  of  the  usual  types.  This 
is  especially  true  of  cases  where  there  is  considerable  mental 
dissociation.^ 

I  found  that  the  manner  of  answering  the  question  always 
threw  light   on   the   patient's   unconscious.     I   was   once 

1  Cf.  Southard,  The  Empathic  Index  in  the  Diagnosis  of  Mental 
Diseases,  Journal  of  Ahnonnal  Psychology,  October,  1918.  The  term 
was  coined  by  Professor  Titchener  and  deals  with  the  idea  of  reading 
oneself  into  an  inanimate  or  animate  object.  As  I  said,  the  object  of 
my  question  was  to  ascertain  the  ideal  one  is  constantly  endeavoring  to 
emulate  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  reading  oneself  into  an  inanimate 
object.  I  feel,  however,  that  the  expression  empathic  index  would 
aptly  fit  as  a  generic  term  to  designate  the  ideas  involved  in  my 
questions.  I  might  say  that  the  answer  to  my  question  denotes  the 
person's  empathic  index. 

17 


258  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

asked  to  see  a  paraphrenic  who  became  nervous  following 
the  death  of  his  mother.  The  patient  was  a  favorite  son 
of  forty-six  and  had  the  following  history.  He  was  born 
and  bred  in  New  York  city,  graduated  from  school,  college, 
and  university,  and  for  years  practised  successfully  his 
profession.  About  ten  years  before  I  saw  him,  when  his 
father  was  eighty-six  years  old  and  his  mother,  who  was 
invalided  through  arthritis,  was  seventy-one,  it  occurred 
to  him  that  he  ought  to  give  his  mother  more  of  his  time. 
He  started  by  leaving  his  office  an  hour  earlier,  then  two 
hours  earlier,  then  three  hours  earlier.  In  the  course  of 
time  he  only  came  to  the  office  for  an  hour  or  two  and 
finally  left  the  firm  altogether,  resigned  from  his  guard 
regiment  and  all  other  social  organizations,  and  simply 
stayed  at  home  with  his  mother.  In  time  he  even  refused 
to  go  to  the  barber,  neglecting  his  person  to  such  an  extent 
that  his  former  associates  could  hardly  recognize  him. 
He  explained  his  actions  by  saying  that  nothing  was  as 
precious  to  him  as  his  mother,  that  nothing  gave  him  more 
pleasure  than  being  with  her,  that  an  hour  with  his  mother 
was  more  than  a  life  time  at  clubs,  offices,  or  regiments.  He 
also  felt  that  his  mother  needed  him  as  a  protection  against 
his  annoying  and  crabbed  father.  (As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  was  no  truth  in  his  statements;  I  was  told  that  his 
mother  strongly  objected  to  his  mode  of  living  and  constantly 
urged  him  to  return  to  normal  life.)  He  hated  his  father 
and  insisted  that  he  must  be  home  so  as  to  shield  his  mother 
from  him;  his  great  hope  was  that  his  father  would  die  and 
leave  him  with  his  dear  mother.  When  his  father  finally 
passed  away  at  the  age  of  ninety  and  his  mother  followed 
him  a  few  days  later,  he  began  to  show  an  active  psychosis. 


STUDIES   IN   PARAPHRENIA  259 

He  insisted  on  going  daily  to  his  mother's  grave,  he  wanted 
to  stay  there  all  the  time  and  blamed  himself  for  her  death 
as  well  as  for  his  father's  death.  The  idea  was,  that  had 
he  shielded  her  better  she  would  have  still  lived;  at  the 
same  time  he  also  felt  that  it  was  his  ill  treatment  which 
hastened  his  father's  death.  Altogether  he  presented  a 
a  very  typical  ambivalent  mechanism  often  seen  in  para- 
phrenia. The  interesting  part  was  that  although  he 
objected  to  his  father  on  the  ground  of  brutality,  calling 
him  a  Prussian,  his  first  answer  to  my  question  was: 
Frederick  the  Great;  later  he  changed  it  to  Lincoln  and  then 
to  Washington.  One  can  readily  see  that  although  he 
objected  so  much  to  his  father's  behavior  he  unconsciously 
imitated  him.  At  home  he  was  an  absolute  tyrant  and 
his  empathic  index  Frederick  the  Great  showed  that  he 
identified  himself  with  his  father  whom  he  called  a  Prussian. 

The  second  point  in  diagnosing  these  mild  paraphrenics 
is  to  find  their  systems.  All  of  them  got  through  at  least 
one  emotional  catastrophe  followed  by  a  partial  adjustment 
with  the  gradual  formation  of  a  system.  Some  of  the  sys- 
tems are  quite  transparent;  others  are  very  complicated. 
It  is  usually  difiicult  to  make  them  give  up  the  secret.  An 
interesting  case  in  question  is  that  of  a  paraphrenic  married 
woman  who  refused  to  live  with  her  husband  in  marital 
relations;  here  is  her  system  as  she  described  it  after  con- 
siderable urging: 

"When  perception  of  the  male  and  female  organs  came 
to  me,  I  turned  them  aside,  or  rather  pushed  it  up.  Any 
tube  suspended,  or  any  spigot  was  symbolic  and  must  not 
be  apperceived.  Consequently  my  vision  was  pushed  over 
by  a  cloud.  A,  my  hearing  also,  B,  for  any  sound  made  by 


260 


PSYCHOANALYSIS 


man  or  woman,  that  must  not  be  heard.  Also  anything 
that  seemed  to  symbolize  two  together,  a  fusion  or  joining 
must  be  turned  aside.  Recently  I  saw  two  boys  romping, 
one  on  top  of  the  other — it  must  not  be  thought  of,  it  must 
be  turned  aside.  So  when  consciousness  touched  the 
sexual  organs,  discriminating  male 
from  female,  in  the  persons  of  my 
parents  and  brothers  and  sisters,  I 
would  not  allow  the  joining  to  take 
place.  If  I  did  allow  the  union  to 
take  place  I  was  a  part  of  that 
person,  so  I  held  it  off.  Just  at 
this  time  I  was  conscious  of  my 
father's  dominant  attitude  toward 
his  family,  overcoming  them  in 
anger,  and  by  blows  with  his  hand. 
So  I  think  the  hand  symbolized 
the  physical  overcoming,  the 
normal  sex  organ  of  physical  over- 
coming, I  have  been  kept  from 
assimilating  on  account  of  my 
mother's  hypermoral  attitude  to 
life.  Consciousness  was  thus  de- 
flected at  E,  to  the  rear  of  the  body, 
where  my  father  had  threatened  to  strike  us  children.  It 
must  be  understood  that  the  male  consciousness  was  not 
allowed  to  join  with  the  female,  so  unconsciously  it  did  at  F. 
The  man  in  my  dreams  was  always  unnamed,  he  had  no 
personality,  and  I  have  always  turned  aside  mentally  at  a 
person's  name.  This  touching  of  the  male  consciousness 
(deflected)  at  F  of  the  sexual  organism,  produced  friction. 


Fig.  1 


STUDIES   IN    PARAPHRENIA  261 

(This  was  ideationally  represented  by  dream  stories.)  Con- 
sciousness thus  confined  to  the  sexual  organs,  an  intense 
thought  caused  an  overflow!  I  had  feehng!  something 
passed  from  me.  I  was  terrified;  mortally  it  meant  mental 
death;  I  shut  off  with  a  terrific  force  at  C — G,  and  H.  Con- 
sciousness has  been  staying  there  ever  since,  afraid  to  move, 
because  movement  caused  this  feeling,  and  that  might 
produce  a  flow  which  meant  mental  death.  This  conscious- 
ness that  I  cut  off  was  the  male  sexual  organ — part  of  it 
was  out,  but  the  nail  was  terrific.  I  froze,  became  stone, 
at  F.  The  part  that  was  out  symbolized  the  nail  in  the 
barbed  wire  fence.  The  fear  has  been  terrific  that  I  would 
animate  again  at  F,  thus  producing  results  at  G  and  H — so 
consciousness  has  held  tight  guard  at  G  and  H.  Mortally 
terrified  I  have  been  at  the  thought  of  any  man,  since  I  had 
not  been  allowed  to  have  normal  mental  stipulation  at  D — 
it  might  produce  it  at  F,  which  might  cause  feeling  and 
produce  feeling  at  F  and  G  and  perhaps  something  to  pass 
from  me  at  H." 

Without  going  into  the  details  of  the  case,  her  description 
may  not  be  comprehensible  to  you,  but  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  stating  that  no  psychoneurotic  could  give  out  such  a 
production.  This  woman  is  dominated  by  a  polymorphous 
perverse  sexuality,  the  sadomasochistic  components  pre- 
dominating, to  which  she  reacts  with  a  peculiar  revul- 
sion to  the  physical  part  of  sex.  She  talks  constantly  of 
cleanliness  and  contamination  of  her  ten  year  old  daughter 
through  sexual  thoughts.  When  she  first  consulted  me  I 
thought  that  she  was  a  hysterica  but  I  was  soon  struck  by 
the  fact  that  even  after  two  months'  treatment  we  were 
still  strangers  to  each   other.     Instead   of  entering  into 


262  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

rapport  with  me  she  paid  very  Httle  attention  to  what  I 
said,  she  wished  to  do  all  the  talking  and  expected  me  to 
listen  and  occasionally  answer  a  question.  She  would 
close  her  eyes,  assume  an  ecstatic  and  mystical  mien  and 
just  talk.  When  she  recited  a  dream  she  immediately  gave 
the  analysis.  All  she  wanted  of  me  was  to  act  as  a  substi- 
tute for  her  father,  through  whom  she  wished  to  attain  her 
paraphrenic  ideals.  These  features,  viz.,  the  indifference 
of  the  patient  to  the  physician,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she 
was  anxious  to  come  to  him,  and  the  tendency  to  interpret 
dreams  as  a  matter  of  course  are  very  typical  in  flourishing 
cases.  The  last  mechanism  was  first  demonstrated  by 
Bleuler  in  his  Schizophrenie  and  one  frequently  observes  it 
in  the  very  mildest  cases. 

An  interesting  case  of  this  kind  was  studied  by  me  about 
a  year  ago.  The  man,  an  only  son,  after  a  prolonged  and 
strange  courtship  finally  married.  After  living  with  his 
wife  for  about  six  months  he  left  her  without  any  particular 
reason;  at  her  suggestion  he  returned  to  her  and  about  a 
year  later  left  her  again.  This  process  was  repeated  about 
half  a  dozen  times  when  his  wife  recognized  the  futility  of 
further  trials.  The  patient  seemed  mentally  well  pre- 
served, he  made  a  good  impression  on  outsiders  but  there 
was  something  archaic  about  his  manner.  He  still  wore  the 
cravenette  one  used  to  see  twelve  to  fifteen  years  ago,  and 
he  admitted  to  me  that  all  his  clothes  were  at  least  as  old. 
He  was,  however,  neat  looking,  and  as  he  put  it,  "there 
was  no  use  buying  clothes  when  you  don't  need  them."  He 
had  nothing  against  his  wife,  which  puzzled  the  poor 
woman  very  much,  but  long  before  he  met  her  he  decided  to 
marry  a  second  cousin  whom  he  had  not  seen  since  he  was 


STUDIES   IN    PARAPHRENIA  263 

nine  years  old.  The  reason  for  wanting  to  marry  his  cousin 
was  to  preserve  certain  family  traits  which  he  feared  were 
dying  out.  When  he  came  to  me  he  had  a  fat  portfolio 
filled  with  his  dreams  which  he  analyzed  without  ever  hav- 
ing read  anything  on  the  subject.  He  came  to  me  because 
he  accidentally  found  Freud's  Interpretation  of  Dreams  while 
he  was  looking  up  something  in  the  library.  He  was  an 
architect  by  profession. 

Another  differential  diagnostic  feature  is  this.  In  normal 
persons  and  neurotics  one  always  finds  the  socalled  typical 
dreams  and  especially  exhibition  dreams,  which  Charles 
Dickens  said  are  dreamed  by  everybody  from  her  majesty 
the  queen  to  her  humblest  jailer.  The  exhibition  dreams 
are  always  found  in  people  and  represent  the  person  as 
being  naked  or  scantily  clad  in  the  presence  of  strangers; 
the  person  is  very  much  embarrassed  and  ashamed,  he 
wishes  to  flee  or  to  hide,  but  for  some  reason  he  is  usually 
unable  to  move  from  the  spot.  A  dream  of  this  kind  was 
given  to  me  by  a  young  married  woman  who  dreamed  that 
she  was  riding  on  a  Fifth  avenue  bus  and  suddenly  discov- 
ered that  she  was  naked.  With  a  great  deal  of  difficulty 
she  ran  into  a  subway  station  but  there  again  she  met  crowds 
of  people  and  the  only  thing  that  she  could  find  to  cover 
herself  with  was  a  telephone  directory.  The  remarkable 
thing  about  exhibition  dreams  is  that  the  persons  before 
whom  one  is  ashamed  are  almost  always  strangers  and  they 
seem  to  be  quite  indifferent  to  the  dreamer's  embarrass- 
ment (4).  Professor  Freud  traces  those  dreams  back  to 
early  childhood.  It  is  a  recollection  of  the  earliest  period 
of  life.  ''Only  in  our  childhood,"  he  states,  "was  there  a 
time  when  we  were  seen  by  our  relatives,  as  weU  as  by 


264  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

strange  nurses,  servant  girls  and  visitors,  in  scanty  clothing 
and  at  that  time  we  were  not  ashamed  of  our  nakedness 
(5).  Children  love  to  show  themselves  naked  and  it  is 
only  with  the  advance  of  age  that  the  reactions  of  modesty 
and  shame  are  formed  against  it.  But  even  when  this 
feeling  is  repressed  both  normals  and  neurotics  always  show 
a  mild  tendency  to  exhibit,  be  it  as  young  students  on  the 
college  campus  or  as  settled  business  or  professional  men. 
The  showoff  instinct  is  always  with  us  and  as  it  cannot 
be  altogether  gratified  we  occasionally  have  exhibition 
dreams.  It  means  that  there  is  a  quantum  of  unattached 
libido  which  the  individual  wishes  to  adjust.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  hear  Professor  Freud's  remarks  on  the  manifestation 
of  the  exhibition  dreams  in  different  persons.  He  says: 
"One's  own  person,  which  is  seen  not  as  that  of  a  child, 
but  as  belonging  to  the  present,  and  the  idea  of  scanty 
clothing,  which  became  buried  beneath  so  many  later 
negligee  recollections,  or  because  of  the  censor,  turns  out  to 
be  obscure — these  two  things  constitute  the  nucleus  of  the 
exhibition  dream.  Next  come  the  persons  before  whom  one 
is  ashamed.  I  know  of  no  example  where  the  actual 
spectators  at  those  infantile  exhibitions  reappear  in  the 
dream.  For  the  dream  is  hardly  ever  a  simple  recollection. 
Strangely  enough,  those  persons  who  are  the  objects  of  our 
sexual  interest  during  childhood  are  omitted  from  all  the 
reproductions  of  the  dream,  of  hysteria,  and  of  the  compul- 
sion neurosis;  paranoia  alone  puts  the  spectators  back  into 
their  places,  and  is  fantastically  convinced  of  their  presence, 
although  they  remain  invisible.  What  the  dream  substi- 
tutes for  these,  the  "many  strange  people,"  who  take  no 
notice  of  the  spectacle  which  is  presented,  is  exactly  the 


STUDIES   IN    PARAPHRENIA  265 

opposite  wish  of  that  single,  intimate  person  for  whom 
the  exposure  was  intended.  Many  stange  people,  moreover, 
are  often  found  in  the  dream  in  any  other  favorable  con- 
nection; as  an  opposite  wish  they  always  signify  a  secret. 
It  may  be  seen  how  the  restoration  of  the  old  condition  of 
affairs,  as  it  occurs  in  paranoia,  is  subject  to  this  antithesis. 
One  is  no  longer  alone.  One  is  certainly  being  watched, 
but  the  spectators  are  many  strange,  curiously  indetermi- 
nate people."  Paraphrenics,  particularly  those  who  show 
a  deeper  organization,  rarely  have  exhibition  dreams. 
As  you  know  the  hospital  patients  exhibit  openly  when  they 
so  desire  and  in  the  mild  cases  that  feeling  is  changed  to 
delusions  of  observation.  I  feel  that  if  one  understands  the 
language  of  the  unconscious  mental  processes  he  can  in 
time  differentiate  the  mildest  paraphrenic  from  the  neuro- 
tics. Their  mode  of  expression  is  absolutely  different. 
The  pantomimic  expression  of  hysteria  corresponds  to  the 
metaphorical  language  of  dreams  and  visions,  while  the 
mental  expression  of  compulsion  neurotics  and  paraphrenics 
manifest  themselves  in  special  idioms.  Thus  the  uncon- 
scious wish  for  pregnancy  or  the  defense  against  it  may  be 
expressed  by  a  hysterical  patient  through  vomiting,  by  the 
compulsive  neurotic  through  the  most  painful  protective 
measure  against  infection,  and  by  the  paraphrenic  through 
complaints  and  suspicion  of  being  poisoned.  (A  number  of 
paraphrenics  have  dreams  in  which  they  are  watched  by 
crowds  of  people.) 

■  Within  the  last  eight  years  I  have  seen  a  number  of  so- 
called  nervous  children  between  the  ages  of  three  and  nine 
years,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  many  belonged  to  the  para- 
phrenic group,  or  to  some  disease  very  closely  allied  to 


266  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

dementia  prsecox.  Most  of  the  acute  cases  showed  the 
catatonic  type  of  reaction  in  the  form  of  negative  resistances, 
mutism,  stereotyped  expressions  and  movements  colored 
by  hysterical  mechanisms,  which  kept  up  for  weeks  and 
longer.  The  chronic  cases  were  shut  in,  suspicious  and 
extremely  resistive.  Observation  leads  me  to  think  that 
the  catatonic  type  of  reaction  is  the  simplest  and  most 
primitive  form  and  that  it  is  more  or  less  present  in  all 
children,  as  a  protective  defense  reaction. 

The  striking  manifestation  in  all  my  paraphrenic  cases 
even  in  the  children  was  some  obvious  sex  difficulty.  This, 
as  is  known,  is  plainly  seen  in  the  flourishing  cases  of  demen- 
tia prsecox  and  paranoia,  and  though  hidden  one  readily 
discovers  it  in  mild  cases.  Thus  Mr.  M.,  the  case  I  cited 
first,  was  an  extremely  moral  person  (sexually  speaking). 
At  the  age  of  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  years,  a  girl  consider- 
ably older  than  he  made  advances  to  him  and  he  fell  in  love 
with  her  but  he  soon  discovered  that  she  was  very  carnal, 
and  not  only  rejected  her  but  the  whole  sex.  A  masturbatic 
experience  with  a  boy  of  nine  years  laid  the  foundation  for 
his  later  repressed  homosexuality  and  made  impossible 
any  normal  adjustment  to  men.  The  strange  part  of  it 
was,  that  although  he  seemingly  showed  no  interest  in  the 
girl  he  continued  to  send  presents  to  her  mother  and  helped 
her  financially  whenever  she  requested  it.  Another  patient 
was  silently  in  love  with  a  girl  in  his  social  circle  and  when 
she  married  some  one  else  he  left  the  city,  went  south  and 
bought  a  small  orange  grove,  where  he  remained  five  years 
leading  an  isolated  existence.  Still  another  patient  was 
much  in  love  with  a  girl  he  had  known  since  childhood.  He 
showed  his  love  through  childish  attentions  whenever  he 


STUDIES   IN    PARAPHRENIA  267 

chanced  to  meet  her,  and  expressed  some  emotivity  when 
she  finally  married  some  one  else.  He  is  now  a  man  of 
fifty-two  years  and  he  still  loves  the  same  girl  and  measures 
every  woman  by  the  standard  of  his  first  love. 

In  children  there  is  naturally  no  sexual  rejection  but 
there  seems  to  be  a  marked  sensitiveness  to  the  love  life. 
Four  years  ago  I  called  to  see  a  girl  of  three  years  who 
showed  negative  resistances,  stereotypy,  mutism,  and  ex- 
treme irritability.  She  was  treated  in  the  usual  manner 
without  any  improvement.  On  investigation  I  found  that 
her  illness  came  on  soon  after  her  parents  separated,  she 
being  in  her  father's  house  with  a  governess.  I  concluded 
that  the  child  missed  her  mother's  love  and  owing  to  the 
constitutional  factors  in  the  case  she  was  unable  to  transfer 
her  libido  from  her  mother  to  the  governess.  I  finally 
persuaded  the  father  to  let  the  child  see  her  mother  and 
after  a  few  weeks  the  child  was  as  well  as  ever. 

Paraphrenics  show  a  priori  an  executive  weakness  in 
managing  their  libido,  and  unlike  normals  and  neurotics, 
any  trauma  to  the  love  life  results  in  a  catastrophe  from 
which  they  never  recover.  The  normal  always  ''forgets" 
and  finds  a  substitute  in  a  new  attachment,  or  he  makes  a 
successful  effort  at  sublimation;  the  neurotic  changes  his 
detached  libidio  into  a  hysterical  symptom  or  into  anxiety; 
in  paraphrenia  when  the  libido  becomes  deprived  of  its 
object  it  gravitates  into  a  special  path,  in  some  it  retreats 
from  subHmated  homosexuality  to  narcism  and  thus 
forms  the  regression  characteristic  of  paranoia,  while  in 
others  it  goes  back  to  autoerotism  and  manifests  itself  in 
more  infantile  types  of  reaction.  That  accounts  for  the 
'fact  that  none  of  my  adult  paraphrenics  have  ever  amounted 


268  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

to  much  in  their  various  vocations.  The  one  thing  essential 
to  normal  Hfe  is  hbidinous  occupation.  Our  vocations  when 
they  represent  a  successful  sublimation  of  our  libido  afford 
us  pleasure.  Paraphrenics  show  a  very  precarious  sublima- 
tion, their  libido  is  largely  introverted.  Most  of  my  para- 
phrenic patients  had  some  income  otherwise  they  would 
have  found  it  very  difficult  to  get  along,  in  all  probability 
it  also  kept  them  out  of  asylums.  Their  libido  is  sclerotic, 
no  real  adjustment  is  possible,  I  have  never  seen  a  para- 
phrenic who  was  in  love  with  a  woman  in  the  normal  sense. 
One  of  my  patients  was  urged  by  his  parents  to  marry 
because  he  was  thirty-nine  years  old;  they  introduced  him 
to  a  woman  of  thirty  and  with  the  active  assistance  of  his 
mother  he  finally  became  engaged  to  her.  He  soon  neg- 
lected her  to  the  extent  of  almost  forgetting  her  existence 
and  was  astonished  when  his  mother  called  him  to  account 
for  it.  He  then  became  very  precise  in  his  attention  to  his 
fiancee,  he  called  on  her  every  Tuesday  evening  but  showed 
no  interest  in  her  in  any  other  way.  He  came  to  see  me 
at  the  advice  of  his  parents.  He  claimed  that  he  could  not 
give  any  more  time  to  his  fiancee  because  he  had  something 
else  for  every  minute  of  the  time  at  his  disposal.  He 
became  very  argumentative  when  I  criticized  his  method  of 
courting  and  ended  by  saying  "anyway  I  cannot  stand  the 
way  she  talks,  her  voice  makes  me  angry."  He  spoke  of 
her  voice  as  "grayish  rasping."  This  patient  was  described 
as  extremely  orderly  and  methodical.  He  took  the  utmost 
care  of  his  belongings  and  became  furious  when  anything 
was  moved  or  disarranged  in  his  room.  Unlike  the  flourish- 
ing praecoxes  paraphrenics  are  not  slovenly  in  appearance ; 
on  the  contrary  they  looTc  very  neat;  one,  however,  soon 


STUDIES    IN    PARAPHRENIA  269 

notices  the  same  sclerotic  condition  in  their  manner  of 
dressing.  One  wealthy  paraphrenic  wore  an  overcoat  which 
he  had  had  for  over  twelve  years.  He  said  "Every  spring 
I  brush  it  and  press  it  and  pack  it  away  for  next  winter; 
one  cannot  buy  such  a  coat  nowadays."  It  is  this  mental 
sclerosis  which  runs  through  the  whole  life  of  the  patients 
that  differentiates  them  from  the  neurotic.  They  occasion- 
ally make  strong  efforts  at  adjustment  and  then  resemble 
the  psycho  neurotic  but  they  are  not  moldable  enough,  no 
permanent  impression  can  be  made  on  them. 

References 

1.  Bleitler:  Schizophrenic;  Deuticke,  Wien,  1911. 

2.  Meyer,  Adolph:  Fundamental  Conceptions  of  Dementia  Prse- 
cox,  British  Medical  Journal,    September  29,  1906. 

3.  Freud:  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  203. 

4.  L.  C.:p.  206. 

5.  Cp.  Freud:  Das  Interesse  an  der  Psychoanalssy  Scientia,  vol.  iv, 
1913. 

6.  Freud:   Jahrbuch  filr  Psychoanalytische  u.  Psychopathologische 
ForschungenjBleuler-Freud,  vol.  iii. 

7.  Cp.  Chapter  II. 


CHAPTER  X 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  MECHANISMS  OF  PARANOIA 

Its  Relation  to  Homosexual  Wish-phantasies 

The  subject  of  paranoia  has  always  been  a  puzzle  for 
psychiatrists  and  much  has  been  said  and  written  about  it, 
but  as  far  as  my  knowledge  of  the  literature  goes  no  real 
attempt  or  progress  has  been  made  toward  its  solution. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter  here  into  an  extensive  dis- 
cussion on  the  subject  of  paranoia  in  general,  but  merely 
to  throw  light  on  some  of  the  psychological  elements  of  the 
subject.     I  will  cite  the  following  case: 

E.  R.,  thirty-six  years  old,  married,  school  teacher  by  occupation, 
was  admitted  to  my  service  at  the  Central  Islip  State  Hospital,  August 
31,  1906.  He  came  by  transfer  from  the  Bloomingdale  Hospital 
where  he  had  been  for  some  time.  In  brief  the  history  of  the  case 
taken  from  commitment  papers  was  as  follows:  In  infancy  the 
patient  sustained  a  severe  fall  on  the  head,  but  without  apparent 
injury.  In  childhood  he  was  subject  to  violent  fits  of  temper.  He 
would  strike  his  head  against  the  wall  when  angry  and  is  supposed  to 
have  had  some  fainting  attacks  when  frightened.  At  an  early  age 
he  was  employed  in  a  factory.  He  resented  his  vulgar  surroundings 
and  blamed  his  relatives  for  permitting  him  to  work  there.  He 
entered  college  at  sixteen  and  worked  his  way  through.  He  stood 
well  in  his  classes,  but  was  not  popular  with  his  classmates.  He 
often  quarreled  with  them  and  assumed  a  high  moral  plane.  He 
refused  to  accompany  them  on  frolics  because  he  would  not  visit 
common  places.  He  graduated  in  1898  and  then  took  up  school 
teaching.  Here,  too,  he  did  not  seem  to  get  along  well  with  his  prin- 
cipal and  the  other  teachers.  He  was  disappointed  at  not  being 
promoted  to  teach  a  higher  grade  and  suspected  that  there  was  a 
conspiracy  against  him.    He  imagined  that  the  principal  and  other 

270 


PSYCHOLOGICAL    MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  271 

teachers  were  trying  to  work  up  a  "  badger  game  "  on  him  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  had  some  immoral  relations  with  his  girl  pupils.  Asa  result 
of  these  delusions  he  would  not  permit  his  girl  pupils  to  come  near 
him  in  the  school  room.  In  1903  he  married,  after  a  hasty  courtship, 
and  soon  thereafter  he  took  a  strong  dislike  to  his  brother-in-law 
and  sister  and  accused  them  of  immorality.  He  also  accused  his 
wife  of  illicit  relations  with  his  brother  and  his  brother-in-law,  Mr. 
S.  These  erotic  delusions,  in  conjunction  with  many  other  delusions 
of  self-reference  and  persecution,  became  very  active.  The  patient 
threatened  to  shoot  his  imaginary  persecutors,  so  that  it  became 
necessary  to  commit  him  to  Bloomingdale  Hospital.  There  he 
remained  from  March,  1906,  to  June,  1906,  when  he  was  taken 
home  on  a  trial  visit,  but  as  he  soon  began  to  react  to  his  delusions 
and  became  excited  and  threatening,  he  was  returned  to  the  hospital 
after  two  days.  One  of  his  peculiar  delusions  at  that  time  was  that 
Dr.  D.,  the  physician  in  charge,  was  his  wife  in  disguise. 

When  he  was  brought  to  the  Central  Islip  State  Hospital  he  was 
quite  calm  and  natural  in  his  conversation.  As  we  had  been  class- 
mates at  college  we  were  both  pleased  and  sorry  to  meet  imder  the 
circumstances.  He  spoke  freely  about  his  condition,  but  he  denied, 
or  tried  to  explain  away  his  many  delusions.  Without  entering  into 
the  details  of  his  behavior  during  the  four  months  he  was  under 
my  care,  I  will  merely  state  that  he  presented  a  typical  case  of  paran- 
oia. Mr.  S.,  his  brother-in-law,  was  the  arch  conspirator  against  him. 
He  accused  him  of  immoral  relations  with  his  wife  and  his  mother 
and  Mrs.  S.,  i.e.,  patient's  sister.  He  often  imagined  that  I  was  his 
wife  in  disguise  and  on  a  number  of  occasions  he  also  accused  his 
brother  of  being  his  wife  in  disguise.  The  following  notes  taken  from 
the  patient's  history  nicely  illustrate  that  point:  "On  Sept.  6,  1906, 
while  speaking  to  me,  he  said:  'Suppose  I  should  tell  you  that  my 
brother  who  visited  me  last  Saturday  and  Doctor  Brill  were  both 

Mrs.    R.    (wife)  in  disguise Doctor  may  I  ask  you  a 

frank  question?'  When  told  to  do  so  he  said,  'Did  you  really  have 
an  interview  with  me  last  Sunday  or  is  it  only  another  case  of  Doctor 
Jekyl  and  Mr.  Hyde?  You  don't  look  to-day  as  you  looked  then. 
You  had  all  the  feminine  traits  of  Mrs.  R. ;  to-day  you  are  severe  and 
look  like  yourself." 

He  also  imagined  that  some  women  made  signs  to  him  and  were  in 
the  hospital  for  the  purpose  of  Uberating  him.     Whenever  he  heard 


272  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

anybody  talking  he  immediately  referred  it  to  himself.  He  inter- 
preted every  movement  and  expression  as  having  some  special  mean- 
ing for  himself.  There  was  no  impairment  of  his  orientation  or 
reasoning  power.  Contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  physicians  he  was 
discharged  December  11,  1906. 

It  will  hardly  be  worth  while  to  enter  into  the  further 
particulars  of  the  symptomatology  of  this  case.  I  will 
simply  relate  the  following  facts:  In  the  summer  of  1908 
the  patient  was  returned  to  Bellevue  Hospital  by  his  own 
family  because  he  was  very  delusional  and  because  they 
considered  him  dangerous.  After  having  been  there  over 
three  months  and  after  a  long  trial  before  a  jury  in  the 
Supreme  court  where  five  physicians,  including  myself, 
had  testified  that  he  was  a  dangerous  paranoiac,  he  was 
declared  sane  and  congratulated  by  the  Supreme  Court 
justice  and  the  jury  on  his  able  management  of  his  own 
case.  He  did  not  wait  for  his  ofl&cial  discharge  from  the 
psychopathic  ward  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  but  escaped  to 
Canada.  His  psychosis  was  apparently  progressing  for 
every  now  and  then  he  would  send  mysterious  letters  to 
different  persons  in  New  York  City.  At  that  time  one  of 
his  delusions  was  that  he  was  a  great  statesman  and  that 
the  United  States  government  had  appointed  him  am- 
bassador, but  that  the  "gang"  in  New  York  City  had  some- 
one without  ability  to  impersonate  him  so  that  he  lost  his 
appointment.  This  led  him  to  send  many  letters  to  the 
State  Department  at  Washington.  On  one  occasion  he 
appeared  there  and  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  see  the 
President's  daughter.  He  was  arrested  by  the  secret 
service  men  and  returned  to  New  York,  but  again  a  judge 
allowed  him  to  remain  at  large.  He  immediately  returned 
to  Canada  and  continued  to  annoy  the  Canadian  govern- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL    MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  273 

ment  with  all  kinds  of  crazy  letters.  The  Canadian  govern- 
ment was  quicker  than  a  New  York  Supreme  Court  jury 
to  recognize  a  lunatic,  for  he  was  arrested,  declared  insane 
and  deported  to  the  United  States  as  an  undesirable  alien. 
He  was  again  brought  to  the  psychopathic  ward  in  Bellevue 
where  I  had  occasion  to  examine  him.  He  expressed  his 
former  delusions,  but  they  were  more  systematized  and 
complicated.  He  showed  considerable  mental  deteriora- 
tion, so  that  he  was  unable  to  hide  his  delusions.  He 
thought  that  the  daughter  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  came  to  visit  him  in  the  hospital  and  he  spoke  quite 
freely  about  it.  Indeed,  the  psychosis  was  so  apparent 
that  he  was  soon  adjudged  insane  and  committed  to  the 
Manhattan  State  Hospital. 

The  characteristic  development,  the  delusions  of  perse- 
cution, the  erotomania  (girl  pupils.  President's  daughter, 
and  many  women  who  came  to  set  him  free  from  the  Cen- 
tral Islip  State  Hospital)  and  the  delusions  of  grandeur 
(statesman,  ambassador)  present  a  typical  picture  of  a 
paranoid  condition. 

Now  I  do  not  expect  to  clear  up  all  the  obscure  points  in 
this  case.  All  I  hope  to  do  is  to  demonstrate  thereby 
certain  mechanisms  brought  out  by  Freud  in  his  psycho- 
analytical remarks  on  a  Case  of  Paranoia^  and  at  the 
same  time  to  give  a  rather  full  review  of  Freud's  paper  in 
order  to  stimulate  further  interest  in  this  subject. 

According  to  Freud  the  paranoiac  character  lies  in  the 

fact  that  as  a  reaction  to  a  defense  against  a  homosexual 

wish-phantasy    there   results    a    delusion    of    persecution. 

This  conclusion  has  been  reached  not  only  by  Freud,  but 

also  by  Jones,  Ferenczi,^   and  others,^  after  having  ob- 
is 


274  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

served  for  years  a  number  of  cases  of  paranoia  in  men  and 
women  of  different  races,  callings  and  social  positions. 
This  statement  may  seem  strange  on  superficial  considera- 
tion, as  it  is  generally  known  that  the  etiological  factors 
usually  found  in  paranoia  deal  rather  more  with  social 
injuries  and  depreciations  than  with  matters  sexual,  but 
if  we  trace  the  social  relations  and  at  the  same  time  bear 
in  mind  Freud's  idea  of  sexuality  we  find  that  they  invari- 
ably lead  to  unconscious  homosexual  wish-phantasies. 

Studies  made  by  Freud"*  and  Sadger^  have  called  atten- 
tion to  a  stage  in  the  history  of  the  development  of  the 
libido  which  is  passed  on  the  way  from  autoerotism  to 
object  love.  This  stage  has  been  designated  as  narcism 
and  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  developing  individual, 
while  collecting  into  a  unit  his  active  autoerotic  sexual 
impulses  in  order  to  gain  a  love  object,  takes  first  himself, 
his  own  body,  as  the  love  object,  before  going  over  to  the 
object  selection  of  a  strange  person.  This  intermediate 
phase  between  autoerotism  and  object  love  is  normally 
perhaps  indispensable,  and  in  a  great  many  persons  it  lasts 
for  a  long  time.  The  genitals  may  then  be  the  chief  thing 
in  this  self  which  is  taken  as  the  love  object.  The  re- 
maining road  may  lead  to  the  choice  of  an  object  with 
similar  genitals  and  then  from  the  homosexual  object 
selection  to  the  heterosexual.  It  is  assumed  that  those 
who  remained  homosexual  were  unable  to  free  themselves 
from  the  desire  of  requiring  genitals  similar  to  their  own 
in  the  love  object.  This  desire  is  also  furthered  by  the 
infantile  sexual  theories  which  attribute  the  penis  to  both 
sexes.  In  the  normal  course  of  development  where  the 
heterosexual  object  selection  has  been  attained  the  homo- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  275 

sexual  feelings  are  not  necessarily  abrogated  or  suspended, 
but  they  are  simply  pushed  away  from  the  sexual  aim  and 
directed  to  new  uses.  They  help  in  the  formation  of  those 
components  which  constitute  the  social  feelings  and  thus 
contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  friendship,  camaraderie 
and  public  spirit.  This  is  the  so-called  process  of  subli- 
mation. All  the  manifest  homosexuals  who  resist  their 
sensual  feeling  take  an  unusual  interest  in  human  affairs.* 

In  his  "Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex," 
Freud  states  that  every  stage  of  development  of  the  psycho- 
sexuality  offers  a  possibility  for  "fixation"  which  may 
thus  result  in  a  type  of  character.  Persons  who  do  not 
get  away  altogether  from  the  stage  of  narcism,  who  are 
fixed  there  on  some  point  which  may  act  as  a  morbid  dis- 
position, are  exposed  to  the  danger  lest  a  high  tide  of 
libido,  finding  no  other  outlet,  might  subject  their  social 
feelings  to  a  sexualization  and  thus  cause  a  retrogression 
of  their  sublimation  which  was  acquired  during  the  develop- 
ment. Such  a  state  may  come  about  by  anything  that 
produces  a  backward  coursing  of  the  libido  (regression). 
It  may  be  brought  about  by  a  collateral  reinforcement 
through  a  disappointment  in  the  woman,  or  through  a 
failure  in  social  relations  to  the  man,  or  through  a  general 
increase  in  libido  which  becomes  too  violent  to  be  dis- 
charged by  the  roads  open  to  it,  and  hence  breaks  the 
dam  at  the  weakest  portion  of  the  structure.  As  analysis 
shows  that  paranoiacs  endeavor  to  defend  themselves 
against  such  a  sexualization  of  their  social  feelings,  we 
are  forced  to  assume  that  the  weak  part  of  their  develop- 

*For  a  full  discussion  of  pathological  homosexuality  see  next 
chapter. 


276  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

ment  is  to  be  found  in  the  parts  between  auto-erotism, 
narcism  and  homosexuality.  It  is  there  that  their  morbid 
disposition  lies.  When  we  read  the  personal  history  of 
E.  R.  we  find  the  following  passages:  ''At  an  early  age  he 
was  employed  in  a  factory.  He  resented  the  vulgar  sur- 
roundings and  blamed  his  relatives  for  permitting  him  to 
work  there.  At  sixteen  years  of  age  he  decided  to  enter 
college  and  worked  his  way  through.  He  worked  hard 
and  stood  well  in  the  class.  He  quarreled  with  classmates 
and  assumed  a  high  moral  plane.  He  would  not  visit 
common  places  when  friends  went  on  a  frolic,  etc." 

In  other  words,  there  seems  to  have  been  some  fixation 
at  the  phases  of  autoerotism  and  narcism,  and  a  failure  of 
sublimation  of  his  homosexual  component.  I  well  remem- 
ber how  shut  in  and  seclusive  he  was  while  at  college. 
During  the  noon  recess  when  the  students  would  chat 
together  in  small  groups  he  could  be  seen  standing  alone 
near  some  wall.  As  far  as  I  know  he  did  not  have  a  single 
friend.  From  his  history  we  gather  that  the  psychosis 
became  manifest  as  soon  as  he  began  teaching  school,  i.e., 
as  soon  as  an  adjustment  to  environment  was  necessary. 
For  adjustment  to  environments  is  nothing  but  a  reaction 
to  social  stimuli.  It  is  nothing  but  a  give  and  take  of 
libido.  Here  no  transference  was  possible  because  his 
sublimation  was  made  retrogressive  and  all  his  social 
feelings  were  sexualized.  The  reaction  against  his  uncon- 
scious homosexual  wish-phantasy  caused  him  to  think 
that  he  was  slighted  by  his  principal  and  the  other  teachers. 
In  his  own  words — "they  were  trying  to  work  up  a  badger 
game"  on  him.  The  normal  relations  between  teacher 
and  pupil  became  impossible.     He  would  not  permit  his 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  277 

girl  pupils  to  come  near  him  because  he  thought  they  had 
some  designs  on  him.  This  simply  means  that  he  pre- 
viously entertained  some  sexual  ideas  about  them  or  they 
probably  represented  a  fixation  from  an  early  age. 

In  1903  he  married  after  a  short  courtship.  He  soon 
began  to  accuse  his  wife  of  infidelity  with  his  brother  and 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  S.  He  also  accused  Mr.  S.  of  improper 
relations  with  his  own  wife  (patient's  sister)  and  a  few 
years  later  he  also  accused  him  of  improper  relations  with 
his  mother.  S.  was  the  arch  conspirator  and  his  brother 
who  was  also  one  of  the  conspirators  was  under  S.'s  influ- 
ence. There  was  apparently  a  conflict  between  his  con- 
scious heterosexuality  and  his  unconscious  homosexuality. 
For  a  time  his  heterosexuality  triumphed  and  he  married 
after  a  short  courtship,  but  the  unconscious  homosexu- 
ality gained  the  upper  hand  and  he  then  began  to  accuse 
his  wife  of  infidelity  with  those  men  whom  he  himself 
unconsciously  loved,  i.e.,  he  projected  his  homosexuality 
to  his  wife. 

But®  when  we  accept  the  homosexual  wish-phantasy  to 
love  the  man  as  the  nucleus  of  the  conflict  in  paranoia  of 
men,  we  at  once  find  that  it  is  contradicted  by  all  the 
familiar  principal  forms  of  paranoia.  Thus  the  sentence 
"I  love  him"  (the  man)  is  contradicted  by  the  delusion 
of  persecution  which  loudly  proclaims  "I  do  not  love  him 
— I  rather  hate  him."  However,  the  mechanism  of  the 
symptom  formation  in  paranoia  demands  that  the  inner 
perception,  the  feeling,  should  be  replaced  by  a  perception 
from  without.  The  sentence  "I  rather  hate  him"  there- 
fore becomes  transformed  through  projection  into  the 
sentence   "he   hates    (persecutes)   me  which  justifies  my 


278  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

hating  him."  The  active  unconscious  feeling  thus  appears 
as  a  result  of  an  outer  perception  "I  really  do  not  love 
him — I  hate  him — because  he  persecutes  me." 

Observation  leaves  no  doubt  that  the  persecutor  was 
once  loved  and  respected.  One  of  my  paranoid  patients, 
D.  S.,  talked  about  his  arch  conspirator  Healy  as  follows: 
"I  wanted  him  to  take  off  all  the  influences,  but  he  would 
not  do  it .  .  .  I  had  all  sorts  of  pains  around  the  heart 
and  I  thought  I  would  die.  I  felt  like  dropping.  I  had 
lots  of  night  losses.  I  was  always  drawn  to  him.  I  couldn't 
keep  away  from  him."  (Note  the  association  between 
night  losses  and  being  drawn  to  him.) 

Another  point  of  attack  for  the  contradiction  is  the 
erotomania  which  maintains  "I  do  not  love  him — I  love 
them,"  (E.  R.  always  maintained  that  many  ladies  came 
to  help  him  and  that  the  president's  daughter  was  in  love 
with  him,  etc.).  But  the  same  impulsion  to  projection 
changes  the  sentence  into  "I  notice  that  they  love  me." 
We  then  have  "I  do  not  love  him — I  love  her — because 
she  loves  me."  Many  cases  of  erotomania  could  give  the 
impression  of  exaggerated  or  distorted  heterosexual  fixa- 
tion if  we  were  not  aware  of  the  fact  that  all  these  loves 
do  not  start  with  inner  perceptions  of  loving,  but  are  feel- 
ings of  being  loved  coming  from  without.  Thus  R.,  a  stage 
hand  who  was  committed  to  the  Central  Islip  Hospital 
because  he  imagined  that  a  certain  well-known  actress 
was  in  love  with  him  and  who  annoyed  her  with  his  atten- 
tions, excused  himself  by  saying  that  he  was  sure  she  loved 
him.  Otherwise,  he  said,  he  would  not  have  forced  his 
attention  on  her.  He  was,  however,  unable  to  mention  a 
single  instance  to  justify  his  statement. 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  279 

The  third  contradiction  would  be  the  delusions  of  jeal- 
ousy which  were  also  present  in  our  patient. 

In  the  delusions  of  jealousy  of  alcoholics  we  fully  under- 
stand the  part  played  by  alcohol.  It  removes  inhibitions 
and  causes  a  regression  of  sublimation.  In  vino  Veritas. 
The  man  is  often  driven  to  drink  through  disappointment 
in  the  woman,  which  usually  means  he  goes  to  the  saloon 
or  club  in  the  company  of  men  who  give  him  the  emotional 
gratification  which  he  misses  at  home.  But  as  soon  as  the 
men  become  objects  of  a  stronger  libidinous  occupation 
in  his  unconscious  he  defends  himself  through  a  third 
form  of  contradiction  "Not  I  love  the  man — she  loves  ^m," 
and  he  then  suspects  his  wife  with  aU  the  men  he  attempted 
to  love.  In  our  patient,  who  is  a  total  abstainer,  the  alcohol 
naturally  played  no  part. 

One  may  now  think  that  the  three  links  of  a  sentence 
"I  love  him"  would  only  admit  three  forms  of  contra- 
diction, viz.,  the  delusions  of  jealousy  contradict  the  sub- 
ject; the  delusions  of  persecutions,  the  verb,  and  the 
erotomania,  the  object.  However,  there  is  still  a  fourth 
form  of  contradiction  forming  the  total  rejection  of  the 
whole  sentence.  The  sentence  reads:  I  do  not  love  at  all, 
and  hence  I  love  nobody,  and  as  the  libido  must  be  some- 
where the  sentence  is  psychologically  equivalent  to  the 
sentence:  "I  only  love  myself."  This  form  of  contra- 
diction results  in  the  delusion  of  grandeur  which  we  conceive 
as  a  sexual  overestimation  of  one's  own  ego  and  which  can 
be  put  side  by  side  with  the  familiar  overestimation  of  the 
love  object.'^  In  our  patient  this  manifests  itself  in  his 
delusions  of  being  an  ambassador  and  many  similar  ones. 

We  can  now  understand  some  of  the  patient's  delusions. 


280  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Mr.  S.,  his  brother-in-law,  was  at  first  one  of  his  best 
friends.  The  unconscious  homosexual  transference  went 
too  far  and  in  his  defense  against  it,  the  projection  mechan- 
ism turns  S.  into  a  persecutor.  What  are  the  contents  of 
the  persecution?  The  patient  answers  this  as  follows: 
"He  is  trying  to  ruin  my  home  and  my  own  immediate 
family,  that  is,  my  wife  and  sister  .  .  .  he  is  not  a  good 
man  ...  I  accuse  him  of  improper  relations  with  my 
sister  (that  is,  his  own  wife).  (Taken  from  hospital 
records.) 

I  could  not  elicit  from  the  patient  what  these  improper 
relations  were.  Whenever  I  broached  the  subject  he 
became  excited,  but  uncommunicative.  On  a  number  of 
occasions,  however,  he  directly  accused  Mr.  S.  of  being  a 
pervert  and  a  degenerate.  That  points  to  the  fact  that 
the  improper  relations  were  of  that  nature,  for  what  other 
relations  between  husband  and  wife  could  be  considered 
improper? 

I  here  call  your  attention  to  a  very  important  psycho- 
logical mechanism,  the  mechanism  of  identification. 
Freuds  tells  us  that  the  identification  mechanism  enables 
the  patients  to  represent  in  their  symptoms  the  experience 
of  a  great  number  of  persons.  They  can  suffer,  as  it  were, 
for  a  whole  mass  of  people  and  impersonate  all  the  parts 
of  a  drama  by  means  of  their  individual  resources.  It  is 
not  the  simple  hysterical  imitation,  but  an  unconscious 
mechanism.  It  is  a  sympathy  based  upon  the  same  etiolo- 
gical claims.  It  expresses  an  "as  though"  and  refers  to 
something  common  which  has  remained  in  the  unconscious. 
In  hysteria  we  know  identification  is  most  often  used  to 
express  sexual  community.     Hysterics  identify  themselves 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   MECHANISMS   OF  PARANOIA  281 

most  easily  with  persons  with  whom  they  had  real  or 
imaginary  sexual  relations  or  with  those  who  had  sexual 
relations  with  the  same  person.^  Bearing  in  mind  this 
mechanism,  we  must  conclude  that  the  three  persons  sus- 
pected of  sexual  relations  with  S.  must  have  something 
in  common  for  the  patient.  This,  of  course,  is  not  difficult 
to  divine.  We  all  know  that  mother,  sister,  and  wife  are 
often  identified  even  in  the  normal.^  He  was  once  in  love 
with  all  of  them,  but  as  they  could  not  gratify  him,  he 
unconsciously  turned  to  homosexuality,  to  S.  However, 
as  he  had  suppressed  the  unconscious  homosexual  wish 
feeling  for  S.,  he  then  consciously  perceived  that  not  he 
loves  S,  but  they  love  him.  In  other  words,  an  inner 
perception  was  suppressed  and  as  a  substitute  its  con- 
tent came  to  consciousness  as  an  outer  perception  after  it 
had  been  subjected  to  disfigurement.  This  is  the  mechan- 
ism of  projection.  This  identification  could  also  be  found 
in  his  other  delusions  as  the  psychosis  continued  to  pro- 
gress. While  in  the  Bloomingdale  Hospital  he  imagined 
that  Dr.  D.  was  his  wife  in  disguise.  In  the  Central  Islip 
Hospital  he  imagined  that  I  was  his  wife  in  disguise.  One 
incident  in  particular  illustrates  this  point.  On  one 
occasion  I  made  my  night  rounds  at  11.30  o'clock,  rather 
later  than  usual.  He  detained  me  for  some  time  with 
many  irrelevant  questions.  The  next  morning  the  super- 
visor brought  me  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  wife  in 
which  there  was  the  following  passage,  "I  am  very  sorry 
for  having  been  so  rude  last  night,  but  it  was  not  my  fault. 
Why  did  you  appear  disguised  as  Dr.  Brill  in  a  strange 
uniform?  Why  can't  you  come  to  riie  in  your  own  sweet 
form?"     Why  did  he  think  that  the  doctors  were  his  wife 


282  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

in  disguise?  This  question  is  very  simple  when  we  think 
of  the  mechanism  of  transference  in  reference  to  doctor 
and  patient,  with  which  I  hope  all  my  readers  are  familiar.^" 
From  my  own  experience  with  our  patient  I  know  that  the 
transference  first  took  the  same  course  as  in  any  neurosis, 
but  as  the  patient  defended  himself  against  this  homo- 
sexual wish-phantasy,  he  at  first  identified  the  doctor  with 
his  wife  and  then  the  idea  was  "I  do  not  love  him,  but  her. 
It  is  not  Dr.  D.  or  Dr.  Brill.  It  is  my  wife."  But  as  the 
psychosis  progressed  it  was  then  transformed  into  the 
idea  "I  do  not  love  him — I  rather  hate  him  because  he 
persecutes  me,"  which  actually  turned  out  to  be  the  case. 
After  the  patient  was  recommitted  to  Bellevue  Hospital 
he  told  me  that  I  was  one  of  the  "gang."  I  was  no  longer 
his  wife  in  disguise,  but  his  enemy.  The  distortion  that 
took  place  in  the  projection  mechanism  was  an  emotional 
transformation.  What  should  have  been  perceived  as 
love  subjectively  was  perceived  as  hatred  objectively. 

But  as  the  mechanism  of  projection  does  not  play  the 
same  part  in  all  forms  of  paranoia  and  as  it  is  also  found 
in  other  psychic  occurrences  such  as  in  the  normal  we 
cannot  consider  it  the  most  essential  and  pathognomonic 
element  of  paranoia.  Let  us  therefore  temporarily  leave 
the  study  of  projection,  and  with  it  the  mechanism  of  the 
paranoic  symptom  formation,  and  turn  our  attention  to 
the  form  of  repression  which  is  more  intimately  connected 
with  the  development  of  the  libido  and  its  disposition  than 
with  the  form  of  the  symptom  formation. 

A  more  thorough  examination  shows  that  the  process  of 
repression  can  be  divided  into  three  phases.  The  first 
phase  consists  in  fixation,  which  is  the  forerunner  and  the 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  MECHANISMS   OF  PARANOIA  283 

determinant  of  every  repression.  The  fact  of  fixation  may 
be  expressed  by  stating  that  an  impulse  or  part  thereof  does 
not  experience  what  may  be  regarded  as  normal  develop- 
ment, and  consequently  remains  in  an  infantile  stage.  Its 
libidinous  emanation  behaves  toward  the  later  psychic  for- 
mations as  if  it  belonged  to  the  system  of  the  unconscious, 
or  as  if  it  were  repressed.  Such  fixation  of  the  impulses 
maj^  already  contain  the  disposition  for  the  later  disease 
and,  above  all,  the  determinants  for  the  failure  of  the  third 
phase  of  the  repression. 

The  second  phase  of  the  repression  is  the  actual  repres- 
sion which  we  have  hitherto  had  in  mind.  It  emanates 
from  the  more  highly  developed  conscious  systems  of  the 
ego  and  may  be  designated  as  an  "after  repression."  It 
gives  the  impression  of  a  real  active  process,  whereas  the 
fixation  is  represented  as  a  passive  backwardness.  Re- 
pression affects  either  the  psychic  descendants  of  those 
primary  impulses  which  have  remained  backward  if  by 
virtue  of  their  enforcement  they  come  into  conflict  with 
the  ego  (or  with  its  proper  impulses)  or  with  such  psychic 
feelings  against  which  there  is  a  strong  antipathy  for  other 
reasons.  This  aversion,  however,  would  not  result  in 
repression  if  there  did  not  already  exist  some  connection 
between  the  repugnant  strivings  to  be  repressed  and  those 
already  repressed. 

The  third  phase  is  the  failure  of  the  repression,  the  break- 
ing through,  or  the  return  of  the  repression.  This  breaking 
through  results  from  the  point  of  fixation  and  manifests  a 
regression  of  the  development  of  the  libido  up  to  this  point. 
It  stands  to  reason  that  there  may  be  as  many  fixations  as 
there  are  stages  of  development  of  the  libido. 


284  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

It  is  impossible  to  demonstrate  these  minute  mechan- 
isms in  our  patient.  As  I  said  above,  I  have  not  seen 
him  for  years,  so  that  I  am  unable  to  tell  what  has  taken 
place  since  then.  In  his  profound  analysis  of  the  case  of 
Schreber,  Freud  shows  that  even  after  the  patient  returned 
to  society  and  found  that  he  was  mistaken  in  his  idea  that 
the  world  came  to  an  end,  he  was  nevertheless  certain 
that  the  world  had  come  to  an  end  while  he  was  sick  and 
what  he  now  saw  before  him  was  not  really  the  same 
world.  Such  transformations  of  the  world  are  quite 
common  in  paranoia.  I  know  a  number  of  paranoiacs 
who  went  through  a  stormy  period  lasting  for  years,  but 
who  now  live  contentedly,  as  if  in  another  world.  They 
do  not  care  for  anything,  as  nothing  is  real  to  them.  They 
have  withdrawn  their  sum  of  libido  from  the  persons  of 
their  environment  and  the  outer  world.  The  end  of  the 
world  is  the  projection  of  this  internal  catastrophe.  Their 
subjective  world  came  to  an  end  since  they  withdrew 
their  love  from  it.  By  a  secondary  rationalization  the 
patients  then  explain  whatever  obtrudes  itself  upon  them 
as  something  intangible  and  fit  it  in  with  their  own  system. 
Thus  one  of  my  paranoid  patients  who  considers  himself 
a  sort  of  Messiah  denies  the  reality  of  his  own  parents  by 
saying  that  they  are  only  shadows  made  by  his  enemy,  the 
devil,  whom  he  has  not  yet  entirely  subdued.  Another 
paranoiac,  in  the  Central  Islip  State  Hospital,  who  repre- 
sented himself  as  a  second  Christ,  spends  most  of  his  time 
sewing  out  on  cloth  crude  scenes  containing  many  buildings 
interspersed  with  pictures  of  the  doctors.  He  explained  all 
this  very  minutely  as  the  new  world  system,  and  although 
he  labeled  the  doctors  with  their  proper  names  he  neverthe- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL    MECHANISMS    OF   PARANOIA  285 

less  maintained  that  there  were  other  persons  concerning 
whom  he  knew  much  that  could  not  be  told.  Thus  the 
paranoiac  builds  up  again  with  his  delusions  a  new  world 
in  which  he  can  live.  The  delusional  formations  which 
we  take  up  as  the  morbid  productions  are,  in  reality,  a 
curative  attempt,  a  reconstruction  as  it  were.  The 
patient  usually  succeeds  in  accomplishing  this  after  the 
catastrophe,  and  in  this  way  he  regains  his  relations  to 
the  persons  and  things  of  this  world.  Hence  the  process 
of  repression  consists  in  a  withdrawal  of  the  libido  from 
persons  and  things  that  were  previously  loved.  This  is 
brought  about  mutely  and  without  our  knowledge.  What 
we  perceive  as  the  disturbance  is  really  the  curative  process, 
which  makes  the  repression  retrogressive  and  reconducts 
the  libido  to  the  persons  it  originally  left.  It  is  brought 
about  in  paranoia  by  way  of  projection.  It  was  therefore 
incorrect  to  say  that  the  inner  suppressed  feelings  are 
outwardly  projected.  It  is  better  to  say  that  what  was 
inwardly  suspended  returns  from  without. 

However,  ^^  a  withdrawal  of  libido  is  not  an  exclusive 
occurrence  in  paranoia,  nor  does  its  occurrence  anywhere 
necessarily  follow  by  disastrous  consequences.  Indeed, 
in  normal  life,  there  is  a  constant  withdrawal  of  libido 
from  persons  and  objects  without  resulting  in  paranoia  or 
other  neuroses.  It  merely  causes  a  special  psychic  mood. 
The  withdrawal  of  libido  as  such  cannot  therefore  be 
considered  as  pathogenic  of  paranoia.  It  requires  a 
special  character  to  distinguish  the  paranoiac  withdrawal 
of  libido  from  other  kinds  of  the  same  process.  This  is 
readily  found  when  we  follow  the  further  utilization  of  the 
libido  thus  withdrawn.     Normally  we  immediately  seek 


286  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

a  substitute  for  the  suspended  attachment  and  until  one 
is  found  the  Hbido  floats  freely  in  the  psyche  and  causes 
tensions  which  influence  our  moods.  In  hysteria  the 
freed  sum  of  libido  becomes  transformed  into  bodily 
innervations  or  fear.  Clinical  indications  teach  us  that 
in  paranoia  a  special  use  is  made  of  the  libido  which  is 
withdrawn  from  the  object.  We  know  that  most  cases 
of  paranoia  evince  delusions  of  grandeur  and  that  the 
delusions  of  grandeur  may  themselves  constitute  a  paran- 
oia. From  this  we  conclude  that  the  freed  libido  in  paran- 
oia is  thrown  back  on  the  ego  and  serves  to  magnify  it. 
Thus  it  again  reaches  to  the  familiar  stage  of  narcism 
from  the  development  of  the  libido  in  which  one's  own 
ego  was  the  only  sexual  object.  "It  is  this  clinical  fact 
that  teaches  us  that  paranoiacs  have  brought  along  a  fixa- 
tion in  narcism  and  we  therefore  assert  that  the  return  from 
the  sublimated  homosexuality  to  narcism  furnishes  the  sum 
of  regression  which  is  characteristic  for  paranoia."^^ 

The  near  relations  between  paranoia  and  dementia 
praecox  are  as  follows:  Paranoia  is  to  be  considered  an 
independent  clinical  type  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
it  is  complicated  by  schizophrenic  features.  Considered 
under  the  guise  of  the  libido-theory,  it  is  distinguished 
from  dementia  prsecox  by  another  localization  of  the  pre- 
disposed fixation  and  by  another  mechanism  of  the  return 
(symptom  formation).  The  principal  character  of  the 
actual  repression — the  removal  of  the  libido  and  regression 
to  the  ego — is  common  to  both.  In  dementia  prsecox 
Abraham  has  thoroughly  demonstrated  that  the  character- 
istic of  the  withdrawal  of  the  libido  from  the  outer  world  is 
especially  clear.     From  this  character  we  infer  that  the  re- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   MECHANISMS   OF  PARANOIA  287 

pression  is  brought  about  by  the  withdrawal  of  libido.  The 
phase  of  active  hallucinations  is  to  be  conceived  as  a  struggle 
between  the  repression  and  the  effort  toward  a  cure,  which  is 
to  bring  back  the  libido  to  its  object.  But  this  striving 
toward  adjustment  does  not  make  use  of  the  mechanism  of 
projection  as  in  paranoia,  but  of  the  (hysterical)  hallucina- 
tory mechanism.  This  shows  one  of  its  market  differ- 
entiations from  paranoia.  The  other  differentiation  is 
to  be  found  in  the  termination  of  dementia  prsecox.  In 
general  the  outcome  in  the  latter  is  more  unfavorable 
than  in  paranoia.  The  victory  does  not  remain  in  the 
reconstruction,  as  in  paranoia,  but  in  the  repression. 
The  regression  not  only  goes  as  far  as  narcism  and  mani- 
fests itself  as  delusions  of  grandeur,  but  it  proceeds  to  the 
complete  abandonment  of  the  object  love  and  returns  to 
the  infantile  autoerotism.  The  predisposed  fixation  there- 
fore must  lie  further  back  than  the  one  in  paranoia.  It 
must  exist  in  the  beginning  of  development,  striving  from 
autoerotism  to  object  love.  Like  so  many  others  Freud 
considers  the  term  dementia  praecox  awkward.  He  also 
objects  to  Bleuler's  designation  of  Schizophrenia.  He 
contends  that  the  latter  term  appears  right  only  when  one 
does  not  think  of  its  verbal  significance  and  that  it  is  too 
prejudical  inasmuch  as  it  makes  use  of  a  theoretically  post- 
ulated character  to  which  the  affection  does  not  belong 
and,  in  the  light  of  the  other  views  cannot  be  considered  as 
the  essential  one.  He  proposes  the  name  paraphrenia,  the 
indefinite  content  of  which  expresses  its  relation  to  par- 
anoia and  hebephrenia. 


288  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

References 

1.  Jahrbuch  fiir  Psychoanalytische  u.  Psychopathologische  Forsch- 
ungen,  Bleuler-Freud,  Vol.  III. 

2.  Ueber  die  Rolle  der  Homosexualitat  in  der  Pathogenese  der 
Paranoia,  I.  c,  p.  101;  also,  Reizung  der  Analen  erogenen  Zonen  als 
auslosende  Ursache  der  Paranoia,  Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoanalyse, 
August,  1911. 

3.  Psychologische  Untersuchungen  and  Dementia  Praecox,  I.  c, 
Vol.  II,  1910.  Similar  conclusions  have  been  reached  by  K.  Abraham, 
in  reference  to  Dementia  praecox:  Die  psychosexuellen  Differenzen 
der  Hysterie  und  der  Dementia  Praecox,  Zentralblatt  fur  Nervenheil- 
kunde  und  Psychiatrie,  July,  1908. 

4.  Translated  by  A.  A.  Brill,  Moffot  Yard  Co.,  N.  Y. 

5.  Ein  Fall  von  multipler  Perversion  mit  hysterischen  Obszenen, 
Jahrbuch  fiir  Psychoanalytische  und  Psychopathologische  Forsch- 
ungen,  II,  1910. 

6.  Paraphrased  from  Freud,  I.  c. 

7.  Cf.  Abraham  and  Maeder,  I.  c. 

8.  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  126.  The  Macmillan  Co., 
New  York. 

9.  Cf.  Chap.  XIII. 

10.  Cf.  Ferenczi:  Introjection  und  Uebertragung,  Jahrbuc!?  fiir 
Psychoanal.  und  Psychopatholog.  Forschungen,  1910,  Vol.  I;  also 
Jones:  The  Action  of  Suggestion  in  Psychotherapy,  Journal  of 
Abnormal  Psychology,  Dec,  1910. 

11.  Paraphrased  from  Freud,  I.  c. 

12.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  64. 


CHAPTER  XI 

HOMOSEXUALITY 

"If  what  I  have  written  scandalizes  any  prudish  person  let  them 
rather  accuse  the  turpitude  of  their  own  thoughts  than  the  words 
I  have  been  obHged  to  iise."       St.  Augustine. 

In  discussing  the  infantile  sexuality  we  quoted  Freud  as 
saying  that  it  is  polymorphous  perverse,  that  is  to  say,  that 
most  of  the  sexual  activities  of  childhood  if  seen  in  the  adult 
would  be  considered  perverse.  A  child  knows  no  shame,  has 
no  sense  of  sympathy,  and  lacks  all  the  moral  feelings 
that  one  finds  in  every  normal  adult.  Homosexuality  is 
one  of  the  components  found  in  every  individual  and  in 
its  normal  form  serves  a  useful  purpose,  it  enables  the 
individual  to  get  along  with  his  fellow  being  of  the  same  sex. 
During  early  life  there  is  hardly  any  discrimination  made 
between  homo-  and  heterosexuality;  the  little  boy  displays 
the  same  interest  in  a  little  girl  as  in  a  little  J^.  But  as 
he  grows  older  his  heterosexual  component  broadens,  and 
depending  on  his  age  he  assumes  a  definite  attitude  towards, 
the  opposite  sex,  while  his  homosexual  component  either 
stops  developing  or  is  repressed.  Beyond  a  feeling  of 
friendship  which  may  even  be  very  deep  he  desires  nothing 
else  from  a  person  of  the  same  sex.  Pathological  homo- 
sexuality consists  in  a  definite  feeling  of  love,  usually  with 
gross  sex  manifestations  for  a  person  of  the  same  sex. 

Of  the  abnormal  sexual  manifestations  none,  perhaps,  is 

so  enigmatical  and  to  the  average  person  so  abhorrent  as 
19  289 


290  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

homosexuality.  I  have  discussed  this  subject  with  many 
broad-minded,  intelligent  professional  men  and  laymen 
and  have  been  surprised  to  hear  how  utterly  disgusted  they 
become  at  the  very  mention  of  the  name  and  how  little  they 
understand  the  whole  problem.  Yet  I  must  confess  that 
only  a  few  years  ago  I  entertained  similar  feelings  and 
opinions  regarding  this  subject.  I  can  well  recall  my  first 
scientific  encounter  with  the  problem,  nineteen  years  ago, 
when  I  met  a  homosexual  who  was  a  patient  in  the  Central 
Islip  State  Hospital.  Since  then  I  have  devoted  a  great 
deal  of  time  to  the  study  of  this  complicated  phenomenon, 
and  it  is  therefore  no  wonder  that  my  ideas  have  undergone 
a  marked  change.  Tout  comprendre  c'est  tout  pardonner. 
I  have  met  and  studied  a  large  number  of  homosexuals  and 
have  been  convinced  that  a  great  injustice  is  done  to  a 
large  class  of  human  beings,  most  of  whom  are  far  from  being 
the  degenerates  they  are  commonly  believed  to  be. 

In  his  "Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex," 
Freud  introduces  two  terms  which  are  very  useful  in  dis- 
cussing sexual  aberrations.  He  calls  the  person  from  whom 
the  sexual  attraction  emanates  the  sexual  object,  and  the 
action  toward  which  the  impulse  strives  the  sexual  aim. 
Bearing  in  mind  these  terms,  we  may  define  homosexuality 
or  uranism  as  that  form  of  sexual  aberration  in  which  the 
sexual  object  is  a  person  of  one's  own  sex.  That  is,  the 
sexual  object  of  the  homosexual  man  is  not  a  woman  but  a 
man,  and  the  sexual  object  of  a  homosexual  woman  is  not 
a  man  but  a  woman.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  such  individ- 
uals are  also  referred  to  as  contrary  sexuals  or  inverts. 

Most  of  the  investigators  agree  that  of  the  sexual  aberra- 
tion homosexuality  is  by  far  the  most  wide-spread.     It  is 


HOMOSEXUALITY  291 

very  difl&cult,  however,  to  give  a  correct  estimate  of  the 
number  of  inverts.  Many  attempts  have  been  made,  nota- 
bly by  Magnus  Hirschfeld,^  who  has  had  more  experience 
with  homosexuaHty  than  any  other  person.  Hirschfeld 
estimates  the  number  of  male  inverts  of  the  population  at 
about  1.5  per  cent.  Dr.  V.  Romer  estimates  that  the  city 
of  Amsterdam  contains  about  1.9  per  cent,  inverts.  Follow- 
ing the  direction  of  Magnus  Hirschfeld  I  attempted  to  find 
out  the  proportion  of  inverts  in  Greater  New  York.  I 
invoked  the  aid  of  six  cultured  inverts  who  were  strangers 
to  one  another,  so  that  they  moved  in  entirely  different 
circles.  They  were  very  anxious  to  assist  me  in  this  work, 
but  after  about  eight  months'  observation  I  found  that  the  re- 
sults differed  to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  impossible  to  com- 
pute any  definite  estimate.  All  that  I  can  say  is  that  there  are 
many  thousands  of  homosexuals  in  New  York  City  among 
all  classes  of  society.  As  visiting  alienist  to  the  department 
of  correction,  I  examined  twenty-eight  homosexuals  who 
were  arrested  one  Saturday  night  in  a  well  known  Turkish 
bath.  Although  some  of  them  denied  their  inversion  to 
the  police  they  readily  admitted  it  to  me.  I  found  among 
them  college  men,  milliners,  valets,  clerks  and  some  belong- 
ing to  the  higher  vocations.  Homosexuality  is  not  a 
product  of  big  cities.  When  we  read  the  works  of  I.  Bloch, 
M.  Hirschfeld,  Moll,  Havelock  Ellis,  and  others,  we  are 
soon  convinced  that  homosexuality  is  ubiquitous.  One 
finds  it  among  primitive  and  enlightened  races  during  all 
epochs  of  history. 

Nor  is  homosexuality  confined  to  defectives,  as  is  com- 
monly supposed.  Investigators  agree  that  homosexuality 
is  no  sign  of  mental  or  physical  degeneration.     Thus  Ivan 


292  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Bloch^  says :  "  I  no  longer  entertain  any  doubt  that  homo- 
sexuality is  compatible  with  perfect  mental  and  physical 
health."  This  same  author  quotes  Magnus  Hirschfeld  as 
saying  that  homosexuality  may  occur  in  persons  just  as 
healthy  as  normal  heterosexual  persons.  .  Similar  ideas 
are  expressed  by  Nacke  and  others.  My  own  findings 
concur  with  these  views.  Most  of  the  inverts  I  know  belong 
to  our  highest  type  both  mentally  and  physically  and  show 
very  little  hereditary  taints.  Without  entering  into  a 
detailed  discussion  of  the  question  I  will  say  that  I  am 
convinced  that  homosexuality  as  such  is  entirely  independ- 
ent of  any  defective  heredity  or  other  degenerative  trends. 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  one  frequently  finds  homo- 
sexual manifestations  among  defectives,  where  it  is  only 
one  of  the  abnormal  elements  that  they  show  so  glaringly. 
Inverts  have  been  variously  classified  by  different  inves- 
tigators of  the  subject,  notably  by  Kiernan,  Lydston, 
Krafft-Ebing,  Hirschfeld,  Bloch  and  others,  but  for  our 
purpose  it  will  suflSce  to  mention  that  there  are  three  classes : 

1.  Absolute  inverts,  whose  sexual  object  must  always  be 
of  the  same  sex.  Most  of  them  entertain  a  horror  femince, 
or  are  impotent  when  it  comes  to  the  performance  of  the 
normal  heterosexual  act.  I  saw  a  number  of  patients,  who 
were  ignorant  of  their  inversion,  who  first  consulted  a 
physician  for  psychosexual  impotence,  usually  however, 
they  soon  recognize  their  aberration. 

2.  Amphigenous  inverts,  (psychosexual  hermaphrodites) 
in  whom  the  inversion  lacks  the  character  of  exclusiveness, 
and  hence  their  sexual  object  may  belong  to  either  sex,  one 
may  say  that  they  are  neither  one  nor  the  other. 

3.  Occasional  inverts,  who  resort  to  homosexuality  under 


HOMOSEXUALITY  293 

certain  external  conditions,  especially  in  case  the  normal 
sexual  object  is  inaccessible.  Such  individuals  are  able 
to  obtain  sexual  gratification  from  a  person  of  the  same 
sex.'  I  found  quite  a  number  of  such  individuals  who 
became  inverted  during  the  war. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  the  inverts  themselves  view 
their  inversion.  Some  take  it  as  a  matter  of  course  and 
demand  the  same  rights  as  the  normal.  They  are  perfectly 
contented  with  their  lot,  and  seldom  consult  a  physician. 
"I  would  not  for  the  world  have  anybody  interfere  with 
my  personality;  I  just  wish  to  consult  you  about  a  modus 
Vivendi  for  myself,"  writes  a  yound  inverted  clergyman  on 
asking  me  for  an  appointment.  Some,  however,  struggle 
against  it  and  consider  it  a  morbid  manifestation.  It  is 
only  the  latter  who  can  be  helped  by  treatment. 

There  may  be  some  congenital  inverts,  but  of  the  many 
cases  that  I  have  analyzed  I  always  discovered  one  or  more 
early  affective  sexual  impressions  which  favored  the  de- 
velopment of  homosexuality.  In  others  a  fixation  of  the 
inversion  took  place  earher  or  later  in  life  through  external 
favoring  and  inhibitory  influences,  such  as  exclusive  rela- 
tions with  the  same  sex  in  boarding-schools,  in  the  army,  in 
the  navy,  in  prison,  etc.  It  is  no  simple  matter  to  find  these 
early  unconscious  impressions.  It  usually  takes  weeks  and 
months  of  psychoanalysis  before  they  can  be  discovered. 
It  is  therefore  comprehensible  why  such  cases  have  been 
called  congenital.  Thus  X.  whom  I  examined  a  few  years 
ago  insisted  that  his  case  was  congenital  but  investigation 
showed  that  at  the  age  of  two-and-a-half  years  an  older 
boy  practiced  fellatio  on  him  at  least  a  few  times  and  besides 
that  he  had  no  father  since  he  was  a  year  old.     It  is  only 


294  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

of  late  that  some  of  these  cases  have  been  studied  psycho- 
analytically  by  Freud,  Sadger  and  a  few  others.^  Another 
point  against  the  assumption  of  congenitahty  is  the  fact 
that  hypnotism  and  other  psychotherapeutic  means  may 
cure  the  inversion,  which  is  hardly  possible  if  it  were  con- 
genital. Indeed,  when  we  examine  the  literature  on  this 
particular  point,  we  find  that  the  authors  are  far  from  being 
in  accord  on  the  question  of  whether  inversions  are  congeni- 
tal or  acquired.  At  first  it  was  supposed  that  homo- 
sexuality was  simply  a  vice  acquired  through  excesses  or 
through  a  suggestion  in  early  life.  (Binet,  Schrenck- 
Notzing).  Krafft-Ebing  assumed  a  congenital  and  an 
acquired  form.  Since  then  there  has  been  a  tendency  to 
limit  the  acquired  form  as  evidenced  in  the  works  of  Moll 
and  others.  Hirschfeld  assumes  that  homosexuality  always 
contains  a  congenital  element.  Nacke  refuses  to  recognize 
a  congenital  and  acquired  homosexuality  but  suggests 
instead  the  true  and  false  inversions.  He  also  describes 
that  form  which  manifests  itself  late  in  life  as  "tardive 
homosexuality"  and  maintains  that  it  is  not  acquired  but 
based  on  a  congenital  basis.  All  these  diversities  are,  in 
my  opinion,  due  to  the  fact  that  none  of  these  authors  has 
gone  deep  enough  with  his  patients. 

When  we  examine  the  theories  advanced  concerning  the 
nature  of  inversion,  we  are  soon  confronted  with  the  theory 
of  hermaphroditism,  which  was  brought  into  prominence 
by  Lydston,  Kiernan  and  Chevalier.  It  starts  with  the 
fact  of  anatomic  hermaphroditism  and  shows  that  a  certain 
degree  of  it  really  belongs  to  the  normal.  This  leads  to 
the  conception  of  the  original  predisposition  to  bisexuality 
which  changes  in  the  course  of  development  to  monosex- 


HOMOSEXUALITY  295 

uality,  leaving  slight  remnants  of  the  stunted  sex.  This 
conception  was  then  transferred  to  the  psychic  spheres  and 
the  inversion  was  conceived  as  an  expression  of  psychic 
hermaphroditism.  But  to  confirm  this  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  find  a  regular  correspondence  between  inversion 
and  the  psychic  and  somatic  signs  of  hermaphrodism  which 
was  not  realized.  Although  one  frequently  finds  in  inverts 
a  diminution  of  the  sexual  impulse  and  a  slight  anatomic 
stunting  of  the  organs,  it  is  by  no  means  a  regular  or  pre- 
ponderate occurrence,  so  that  one  is  forced  to  conclude  that 
there  is  no  relation  between  homosexuality  and  somatic 
hermaphrodism . 

Many  observers  lay  a  great  deal  of  stress  on  the  so-called 
secondary  and  tertiary  sex  characteristics  which  one  often 
observes  in  inverts.  Thus  Hirschfeld,  who  bases  his  experi- 
ence on  1,500  inverts,  asserts  that  he  never  saw  a  homo- 
sexual who  did  not  differ  from  a  perfect  man  in  structure 
and  development,  among  which  are  narrow  shoulders  with 
broader  hips,  sparse  growth  of  hair  on  face,  falsetto  voice, 
etc.  As  much  as  I  respect  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Hirschfeld 
I  must  say  that  I  cannot  quite  agree  with  him.  In  my 
little  experience  I  have  seen  many  homosexuals  without 
any  of  the  secondary  sex  characters.  I  will  admit,  however, 
that  I  have  not  examined  my  patients  as  carefully  as 
Hirschfeld  has  his.  On  the  other  hand  I  know  that  some 
men  show  some  of  the  secondary  sex  characters  who  are 
absolutely  heterosexual. 

The  bisexual  theory  expounded  by  Ulrich — anima 
muliehris  in  corpore  virili  inclusa — is  entirely  untenable. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  Krafft-Ebing's  theory  that  the 
bisexual  predisposition  gives  to  the  individual  male   and 


296  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

female  brain-cells  somatic  sexual  organs  which  develop 
toward  puberty  under  the  influence  of  the  independent 
sex  glands.  All  that  can  be  said  is  that,  although  a  bisexual 
predisposition  may  also  be  presumed  for  the  inversion,  we 
do  not  know  wherein  it  exists  beyond  the  anatomic  forma- 
tions and  that  we  are  dealing  with  disturbances  experienced 
by  the  sexual  impulse  during  its  development.^  The 
experiments  recently  described  by  Steinach  are  too  young 
to  have  acquired  much  value. 

According  to  the  theory  of  psychic  hermaphroditism  the 
sexual  object  of  inverts  would  be  the  reverse  of  the  normal. 
Thus  the  invert  would  succumb  to  the  charms  emanating 
from  the  manly  qualities  of  body  and  mind;  he  would  feel 
like  a  woman  and  look  for  the  man.  This  conception, 
although  true  in  a  great  many  cases,  does  not  by  any  means 
indicate  the  general  character  of  the  inversion.  Many 
homosexuals  retain  their  virility  and  look  for  feminine 
psychic  features  in  their  sexual  object.  Freud  demonstrates 
this  nicely  by  mentioning  the  fact  that  masculine  prostitutes 
in  offering  themselves  to  inverts  imitate  today,  as  in 
antiquity,  the  dress  and  the  attitudes  of  the  woman. 
Moreover,  among  the  Greeks,  who  numbered  among  their 
inverts  some  of  the  most  manly  men,  it  was  surely  not  the 
masculine  traits  of  the  boy  that  attracted  them  but  rather 
his  physical  resemblance  to  the  woman  as  well  as  his  femin- 
ine psychic  qualities,  such  as  shyness  and  demureness. 
When  the  boy  grew  up  he  ceased  to  be  a  sexual  object  for 
men  and  in  turn  became  a  lover  of  boys.  All  this  goes  to 
show  that  the  sexual  object  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others, 
is  not  of  the  same  sex,  but  that  it  unites  both  sex  characters. 
It  is  a  compromise  between  the  impulses  striving  for  the 


HOMOSEXUALITY  297 

man  and  for  the  woman,  but  firmly  conditioned  by  the 
masculinity  of  the  body  (the  genitals).  I  purposely  para- 
phrased Freud,  as  these  points  will  have  to  be  borne  in  mind 
later. 

The  sexual  aim  of  inverts  shows  no  uniformity.  The 
popular  idea  of  homosexual  relations  presupposes  that  in- 
verts always  practice  fellatio  or  intercourse  per  anum. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  these  sexual  aims  are  least  desired. 
Many  homosexuals  are  as  disgusted  at  the  mention  of  these 
practices  as  normals.  Some  content  themselves  with  an 
effusion  of  feelings.  Ten  of  my  analyzed  cases  never  had 
any  gross  sexual  relations  with  their  sexual  object.  Some 
practiced  mutual  masturbation,  others  coitus  inter  femora. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  diagnosis  of  homosexuality 
is  not  always  an  easy  matter.  In  the  first  place  it  must  be 
urged  that  a  sporadic  homosexual  act  does  not  necessarily 
mean  homosexuality,  nor  does  the  absence  of  such  acts 
signify  heterosexuality.  There  is  naturally  no  difficulty 
when  one  is  confronted  with  an  absolute  invert  who 
acknowledges  his  inversion.  There  are,  however,  a  number 
of  inverts  who  are  really  ignorant  of  their  inversion. 
Eleven  out  of  my  forty-nine  patients  did  not  realize  that 
they  were  homosexual,  although  nearly  all  of  them  had  had 
homosexual  experiences  some  time  in  their  lives.  They 
sought  treatment  for  psychosexual  impotence  or  for  some 
neurosis.  I  have  also  seen  patients  who  were  treated  for 
a  long  time  for  psychosexual  impotence  by  prostatic  massage 
etc.,  who  were  all  the  time  aware  of  their  inversion.  They 
kept  silent  because  the  treatment  gave  them  pleasure  or 
because  they  were  ashamed  or  afraid  to  tell  the  doctor  the 
true  state  of  affairs.     For  many  reasons  the  average  doctor 


298  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

is  not  especially  affable  to  a  homosexual  patient,  and  many 
a  sensitive  invert  has  had  cause  to  regret  his  confidence  in 
the  doctor.  Thus  a  homosexual  who  struggled  with  his 
aberration  and  never  yielded  to  it  consulted  the  catalogue 
of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  for  a  physician 
who  was  interested  in  the  subject.  He  found  only  a  few- 
names  among  whom  was  the  name  of  a  prominent  alien- 
ist of  the  old  school  whom  he  decided  to  see.  He  naturally 
had  to  overcome  enormous  resistances  in  telling  this  vener- 
able scientist  about  his  inversion  and  when  the  doctor 
finally  understood  he  contemptuously  cried:  "What  a 
disgusting  disease  to  have!"  This  stopped  the  interview 
as  neither  the  patient  nor  the  doctor  cared  to  continue. 
The  consultation  fee  was  $25. 

The  diagnosis  should  be  based  on  the  somatic  and  psychic 
elements  of  the  case,  especially  the  latter.  Naturally  the 
psychoanalyst  finds  it  easier  to  diagnose  a  difficult  case 
than  one  who  does  not  enter  into  the  deeper  psychologic 
mechanisms.  Dreams  are  usually  an  excellent  guide  in 
the  diagnosis  of  homosexuality,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  they  should  be  judged  by  the  latent  and  not  by  the 
manifest  content  by  which  Nacke  judges  them.  I  have 
analyzed  many  apparently  sexual  dreams  whose  latent 
content  showed  a  homosexual  wish.*'  We  must  also  remem- 
ber that  not  all  erotic  dreams  of  homosexuals  are  homo- 
sexual,^ and  that  some  apparently  homosexual  dreams 
have  nothing  to  do  with  homosexuality  as  an  inversion.^ 
Furthermore,  many  homosexuals  who  are  anxious  to  become 
heterosexual  often  show  corresponding  dreams;  the  dreams 
simply  realize  their  wishes.  I  have  observed  this  mechan- 
ism in  many  homosexuals,  and  it  is  for  that  reason  that  I 


HOMOSEXUALITY  299 

cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Coriat,  who  states  that  the 
"dreams  furnish  us  not  only  the  best,  but  the  most  incon- 
trovertible, (the  italics  are  mine)  evidence  of  the  result  of 
treatment." 

There  is  a  class  of  patients  who  do  not  show  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  invert  who  are  nevertheless  constantly- 
afraid  of  becoming  homosexual  or  fear  lest  some  one  should 
suspect  them  of  homosexuality.  I  have  seen  a  number  of 
such  patients  who  were  classed  as  homosexuals.  I  also 
saw  one  of  these  patients  in  consultation  with  Dr.  Hirsch- 
feld,  who  diagnosed  the  case  as  a  severe  psychoasthenia 
and  saw  nothing  homosexual  in  the  case.  If  such  patients 
are  questioned,  one  will  find  that  they  never  were  in  love 
with  any  person  of  the  same  sex — an  important  diagnostic 
point — and  they  show  besides  many  symptoms  that  one 
does  not  find  in  the  inversions.  These  patients  may  be 
called  unconscious  homosexuals;  and  they  often  develop 
paranoid  states.^  I  may  add  that  the  patient  seen  with 
Dr.  Hirschfeld  is  now  suffering  from  the  paranoid  form  of 
dementia  prsecox. 

As  we  are  dealing  with  a  psychic  manifestation,  the  hope 
for  a  cure  of  homosexuality  lies  in  psychotherapy.  I  can 
never  comprehend  why  physicians  invariably  resort  to 
bladder  washing  and  rectal  massage  when  they  are  consulted 
by  homosexuals,  unless  it  be  "to  kill  the  homosexual  cells 
in  the  prostate  so  that  their  place  may  be  taken  by  hetero- 
sexual cells,"  as  one  physician  expressed  himself  when  one 
of  my  patients  asked  him  how  massage  of  the  prostate  would 
cure  his  inversion.  It  is  an  unfortunate  fact  that  such 
ridiculous  ideas  are  often  heard  in  the  discussion  of  psycho- 
sexual  disturbances.     Only  a  few  months  ago  a  patient 


300  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

told  me  that  he  was  told  by  two  physicians  that  his  hope  for 
a  cure  lay  in  castration. 

When  hypnosis  came  into  vogue  a  great  many  workers  in 
this  field  utilized  it  in  the  treatment  of  homosexuality.^** 
It  was  soon  found  that  it  failed  to  come  up  to  expectation. 
Some  patients  could  not  be  hypnotized,  others  suffered 
relapses,  and  still  others  did  not  react  to  the  suggestions. 
Indeed,  very  few  sexologists  place  much  trust  in  hypnotism 
as  a  cure  for  inversions.  Of  late  Moll  has  advanced  a  new 
psychotherapeutic  method  which  he  calls  the  association 
therapy.  It  consists  of  a  methodical  development  of  the 
normal  and  a  methodical  suppression  of  the  perverse  asso- 
ciations." It  is  too  early  to  speak  of  the  merits  of  this 
treatment;  so  far  as  my  knowledge  goes  no  one  has  used  it 
besides  Moll.  In  the  treatment  of  my  cases  I  use  exclu- 
sively psychoanalysis.  Freud,  Sadger  and  others,  have 
used  this  method  for  a  number  of  years,  ^^  and  the  results 
obtained  are  very  gratifying.  Besides,  psychoanalysis  has 
the  advantage  over  the  other  psychotherapeutic  means  in 
so  far  as  it  enters  into  the  deeper  mechanisms  of  the  phe- 
nomena, and,  although  we  have  not  yet  a  full  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  inversions,  it  has  revealed  the  psychic  mechan- 
ism of  its  genesis  and  has  essentially  enriched  the  problem. 

We  have  discussed  above  the  close  connection  between 
the  neuroses  and  the  perversions.  Every  neurosis  regu- 
larly shows  some  admixture  of  inversion,  and  during  the 
analysis  of  a  hysteria  or  compulsion  neurosis  one  invariably 
finds  a  fragment  of  the  infantile  sexuality  which  could  not 
be  successfully  repressed.  When  we  analyze  a  case  of 
inversion  we  find  that  the  masculine  ideals  of  the  invert 
regularly  conceal  the  early  infantile  feminine  ideals,  usually 


HOMOSEXUALITY  301 

the  mother  or  foster-mother,  which  succumbed  to  repression 
at  a  very  early  age.  All  homosexuals  that  were  cured  were 
strongly  attached  to  their  mothers  in  the  first  period  of 
childhood.  This  erotic  attachment  which  is  then  forgotten 
was  favored  by  too  much  love  from  the  mother,  and  by  the 
absence  of  the  father  during  the  childhood  period.  Almost 
all  my  cases  either  lost  their  fathers  at  a  very  early  age,  or 
had  mothers  who  in  Sadger's  words  were  "man- women" 
who  overshadowed  the  weak  father.  According  to  Freud 
"It  almost  seems  that  the  presence  of  a  strong  father  would 
assure  for  the  son  the  proper  decision  in  the  selection  of  his 
object  from  the  opposite  sex."'^ 

But  as  the  love  for  one's  mother  cannot  continue  to 
develop  consciously  as  the  boy  grows  older,  it  succumbs  to 
repression,  in  the  following  manner:  Consciously  he  no 
longer  evinces  any  erotic  strivings  for  her  but  his  extreme 
unconscious  repressed  love  causes  him  to  put  himself  in 
her  place,  to  identify  himself  with  her,  and  to  take  his  own 
person  as  a  model  for  the  selection  of  object  love.  He  thus 
loves  homosexually;  actually,  however,  he  returns  to  the 
autoerotic  period  of  his  existence,  for  the  boys  whom  he 
loves  as  an  adult  are  only  substitutes  or  revivals  of  his  own 
childish  person,  whom  he  loves  in  the  same  way  as  he  was 
loved  by  his  mother.  This  becomes  manifest  only  at,  or 
shortly  before  puberty,  and  the  permanent  homosexual 
craving  is  usually  favored  by  the  fact  that  the  mother  loses 
her  role  as  an  ideal  forever,  or  for  a  long  time,  through  death, 
illness,  or  other  estrangements.  The  boy  may  then  turn 
to  the  man  closest  to  him  such  as  his  father,  older  brother 
or  some  other  older  man  of  his  environments.  But  besides 
the  homosexual  and  heterosexual  features  craved  by  him. 


302  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

his  own  person  or  image  always  plays  a  part  and  as  was 
mentioned  above,  the  road  to  that  type  of  homosexuality 
always  goes  by  way  of  narcissism.  Narcissism  is  therefore 
a  necessary  stage  of  development  in  the  transition  from 
auto-erotism  to  the  later  love  object.  The  love  for  one's 
own  person,  which  only  conceals  the  love  for  one's  own 
genitals,  represents  a  stage  of  development  which  is  always 
present,  and  in  a  great  many  persons  lasts  a  long  time. 
The  remaining  road  later  leads  to  the  choice  of  objects  with 
similar  genitals.     As  Sadger  puts  it: 

"Every  man  usually  has  two  primary  and  primitive  sexual 
objects,  and  his  future  life  depends  on  whether  or  not  he 
finally  remains  fixed,  and  on  which  of  the  two  the  fixation 
takes  place.  For  the  man  these  two  objects  are  his  mother 
or  foster-mother  and  his  own  person.  To  remain  healthy 
he  must  rid  himself  of  both,  and  not  tarry  too  long  with 
either  of  them.^^" 

It  is  assumed  that  the  invert  could  not  get  away  from 
himself,  that  is,  he  was  unable  to  free  himself  from  the  desire 
of  requiring  genitals  similar  to  his  own  in  the  love  object.  ^^ 
He  is  more  successful,  however,  in  freeing  himself  from  his 
mother-image  which  is  brought  about  by  identifying  himself 
with  her  and  thus  taking  himself  as  the  sexual  object.  With 
the  repression  of  the  love  for  the  mother  there  occurs  a 
repression  of  love  for  all  womankind.  According  to  Sadger 
it  follows  the  following  trend  of  thought:  " If  the  best  of  all 
women,  my  own  mother,  amounts  to  so  little,  how  could 
any  other  woman  stand  the  test?"^^  As  soon  as  the  analy- 
sis is  entered  on,  one  often  finds  that  inverts  are  not  at  all 
indifferent  to  the  charms  of  woman,  but  as  soon  as  any  ex- 
citation is  evoked  by  the  woman  it  is  at  once  transferred 


HOMOSEXUALITY  303 

to  a  male  object.  This  mechanism  which  gave  origin  to  the 
inversion  is  thus  repeated  throughout  life  and  the  obsessive 
striving  for  the  man  proves  to  be  determined  by  the  restless 
flight  from  the  woman.  When  the  invert  pursues  boys  he 
only  runs  away  from  women  and  thus  remains  loyal  to  his 
mother. 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that  many  inverts  are  only  or  favor- 
ite children.  I  have  shown  elsewhere  that  such  children 
are  usually  overburdened  with  love^^  and  hence  remain 
insatiable  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.  This  accounts  for  the 
fact  that  when  they  tear  themselves  away  from  their 
mothers  they  often  reject  the  whole  sex. 

These  are  some  of  the  salient  points  brought  out  through 
the  analysis  of  inverts  which  I  shall  illustrate  by  the 
following  cases. 

Case  I. — W.,  aged  40,  single,  American,  came  to  me  for  treatment 
in  December,  1910.  He  was  an  absolute  invert,  having  attempted 
heterosexual  intercourse  once  at  the  suggestion  of  his  valet  and  failed. 
He  showed  some  of  the  secondary  sex  characters.  He  had  a  very 
delicate  skin,  of  which  he  was  proud  because  it  was  just  Uke  his 
mother's,  a  scanty  growth  of  hair  on  his  face,  and  narrow  shoulders, 
and  broad  hips.  Psychically  he  recalled  an  old  maid.  He  was  very 
neurasthenic  and  crabbed,  but  his  mood  often  changed  to  a  feeling 
of  self-sacrifice  and  marked  consideration  for  others.  He  was  very 
artistic,  loved  music,  pictures,  and  took  a  great  interest  in  architecture. 
He  had  had  many  homosexual  experiences;  he  was  loved  by,  and  loved 
men,  and  never  entertained  any  sexual  feeUng  for  women.  As  soon 
as  I  entered  into  his  life  I  found  that  he  had  a  striking  poljnnorphous 
perverse  sexuality  which  continued  into  the  age  of  puberty.  His 
desire  for  looking  was  especially  strong.  At  the  age  of  from  6  to  8 
he  used  to  lock  himself  in  the  bathroom  and  look  at  himself  naked  in 
the  mirror.  He  often  put  the  mirror  on  the  floor  and  excited  himself 
by  looking  at  his  penis.  Although  he  at  first  recalled  no  heterosexual 
experience,  he  later  related  many  such  incidents.     Thus  at  the  age 


304  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

of  six  years  while  visiting  a  relative,  he  slept  with  a  servant  who 
practiced  masturbation  with  him.  She  also  taught  him  sexual 
intercourse.  Five  years  later  at  the  age  of  eleven  years  he  met  this 
servant  and  attempted  intercourse  with  her.  At  the  same  age  he 
had  a  number  of  sexual  experiences  with  a  girl  of  fourteen  years. 
His  homosexual  experiences  began  at  the  age  of  nine  years  when  he 
was  taught  fellatio  by  a  classmate.  He  proudly  asserted  that  he 
was  his  mother's  pet.  When  he  was  young  he  was  very  much  attached 
to  her,  but  after  the  age  of  puberty  he  could  never  be  with  her  without 
quarreUng  with  her,  he  showed  a  marked  sadistic  attitude  towards 
his  mother.  He  openly  hated  his  father  for  his  lack  of  consideration 
for  his  mother  and  himself,  but  spoke  of  him  with  much  admiration. 
He  was  as  attached  to  his  older  brother  as  he  hated  his  wife.  There 
was  a  definite  homosexual  transference  to  this  brother  which  showed 
itself  in  his  homosexual  relations  with  others.  I  should  like  to  give 
you  a  full  analysis  of  this  very  interesting  case,  but  1  shall  reserve  this 
for  another  occasion,  and  will  simply  say  that  this  case  demonstrates 
with  absolute  certainty  the  psychologic  mechanisms  found  by  Freud, 
Sadger  and  others.  After  six  months'  treatment  the  patient  left 
me  perfectly  cured  and  has  remained  so  ever  since.  His  two  un- 
successful attempts  to  marry  are  undoubtedly  due  to  his  psychopathic 
constitution  and  age.  * 

Case  II. — O.,  46  years  old,  single,  American,  was  referred  to  me 
for  treatment  for  psychosexual  impotence  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Reynolds  in 
the  beginning  of  May,  1909.  The  patient  stated  that  he  attempted 
intercourse  at  the  age  of  22  years  and  failed,  and  since  then  had 
been  unable  to  get  an  erection  without  being  helped  by  friction. 
For  about  a  year  before  coming  to  me  he  attempted  intercourse  three 
times,  for  experimental  reasons  as  he  put  it,  and  succeeded  in  getting 
only  "half  an  erection."  The  patient  was  somewhat  shy,  and  of 
the  plethoric  type.  He  gave  a  clear  account  of  his  life  and  soon  be- 
came interested  in  the  analysis.  After  studying  him  for  two  weeks 
I  discovered  that  his  impotence  was  due  to  homosexuality.  His 
vita  sexualis  was  characterized  by  a  rather  prolonged  infantile  sexual- 
ity. He  wet  the  bed  up  to  the  age  of  13  years.  Between  the  ages  of 
six  and  eight  years  he  practiced  exhibitionism  with  a  Uttle  girl.  At 
the  age  of  twelve  years  he  began  to  masturbate,  a  practice  which  he 
continued  to  the  time  of  treatment  with  Dr.  Reynolds.  He  attempted 
heterosexual  intercourse  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  years,  and  his  first 


HOMOSEXUALITY  305 

homosexual  experience  began  at  the  age  of  29  years  and  continued  on 
and  off  whenever  the  occasion  presented  itself.  These  experiences 
were  always  accompanied  by  conflicts  and  feelings  of  remorse.  When 
young  he  was  very  fond  of  his  mother,  but  since  the  age  of  eight  years 
she  had  disgusted  him  because  "she  gave  birth  to  so  many  children." 
This  feeling  began  after  he  observed  coitus  between  his  parents.  This 
patient  showed  no  definite  secondary  sex  characters,  although  he 
himself  thought  that  he  did  not  have  enough  hair  on  his  face  and  that 
his  penis  was  small.  His  penis  was  slightly  below  the  average. 
When  I  first  discovered  the  patient's  homosexuaUty  I  took  a  rather 
gloomy  view  of  the  prognosis.  My  reason  for  feeling  so  was  that  he 
entertained  some  vague  ideas  of  reference.  He  imagined  that  when 
ever  he  came  near  men  they  made  certain  motions  which  meant  to 
him  that  they  considered  him  effeminate,  but  after  deeper  investi- 
gation I  f  oimd  that  this  symptom  was  a  reaction  to  his  extreme  shyness, 
and  represented  a  wish  to  be  noticed  by  men.  This  shj^ness,  according 
to  the  patient,  was  also  responsible  for  his  marked  attraction  for  men 
who  were  inferior  to  him,  such  as  Chinese,  Japanese  and  colored  men. 
After  ten  months'  treatment  the  patient  left  me  as  cured,  and  has  been 
well  since.  The  analysis  demonstrated  almost  all  the  homosexual 
mechanisms  enumerated  above. 

CaseI  III. — L.  was  28  years  old,  born  in  this  country  of  American 
stock,  and  an  actor  by  vocation.  This  patient  was  very  anxious  to  be 
cured  of  his  aberration  and  repeatedly  consulted  physicians.  His 
history  showed  that  he  was  somewhat  burdened  by  heredity;  his 
father  was  considered  eccentric  and  his  brother  showed  prsecox 
trends.  He  himself  considered  his  case  congenital  as  he  recalled  that 
at  the  age  of  four-five  years  he  became  excited,  sexually,  on  sleeping 
with  his  father.  Investigations  revealed  that  he  was  a  very  dehcate 
child  and  consequently  received  more  than  the  average  amount  of  love 
from  his  mother.  As  far  back  as  he  could  recall  he  was  timid  and 
shy  and  had  many  night  mares.  He  slept  with  his  parents,  especially 
with  his  mother,  most  of  the  time,  and  when  that  was  refused  to  him 
he  would  be  most  imhappy  and  cry  for  hours.  Even  at  the  age  of 
five-six  and  eight  he  still  occasionally  slept  with  his  mother  and  on 
a  number  of  occasions  he  witnessed  coitus  between  his  parents  who 
believed  him  sound  asleep.  He  at  first  conceived  the  act  in  the 
sadistic  sense  and  became  terribly  frightened  over  it.  Soon,  however, 
he  realized   what  it  meant  and    became  extremely  irritated  by  it. 

20 


306  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

He  remembered  distinctly  that  after  such  an  episode  around  the  age 
of  seven  or  eight  he  became  so  enraged  at  his  mother  that  he  thought 
of  killing  her  and  his  father.  These  reminiscences  often  reappeared  in 
his  later  dreams,  particularly  the  following,  which  sUghtly  modified, 
came  again  and  again.  He  dreamed  that  he  saw  his  mother  lying  on  a 
couch  or  bed  and  a  rather  mannish  looking  tvoman  or  girl  lay  on  her 
and  beat  her  vnth  a  whip  or  stick.  This  dream  was  always  accompanied 
by  fear.  He  related  this  dream  to  a  neurologist  who  "analyzed?" 
him,  and  this  "wild  psychoanalyst"  told  him  that  this  dream  showed 
that  his  mother  was  homosexual.  As  the  patient  considered  his 
malady  as  a  degeneration  he  felt  terribly  that  his  old  mother  whom 
he  respected  should  suffer  from  the  same  thing.  When  the  patient 
later  had  this  stereotyped  dream  while  he  was  my  patient,  he  received 
quite  a  different  interpretation  of  it,  which  caused  him  to  write  to  his 
former  physician  in  no  compUmentary  terms  about  his  skill  as  a 
psychoanalyst.  Of  course,  I  knew  nothing  of  the  former  interpre- 
tation. This  dream  was  determined  by  a  loving  letter  from  his 
mother  the  day  before,  which  made  him  homesick,  and  by  a  homo- 
sexual temptation  from  a  chorus  man  of  his  acquaintance.  The 
associations  soon  recalled  the  coitus  episodes  mentioned  before. 
The  mannish  woman  on  top  was  a  condensation  of  his  father  and 
himself.  As  a  boy  he  always  thought  that  his  father  was  better 
looking  than  his  mother  because  he  looked  young  and  sUm  while  his 
mother  was  stout  and  had  some  hair  on  her  face.  As  the  chief  actor 
in  the  dream  is  always  the  dreamer,  he  was  the  mannish  woman  in 
the  dream.  The  sadistic  elements  were  partially  determined,  by 
his  early  conception  of  coitus,  by  the  irritating  fancies  accompanying 
the  sight  of  the  act  and  by  the  fact  that  in  his  early  hfe  he  was  con- 
tantly  fed  on  sado-masochistic  fairy  stories. 

The  patient  readily  accepted  the  interpretation  of  this  dream  as 
a  coitus  wish  with  his  mother  because  as  a  boy  he  often  entertained 
frank  fancies  of  this  nature,  but  became  furious  when  he  thought  of 
the  analysis  given  by  the  other  physician,  namely  that  his  mother  was 
homosexual. 

As  more  of  this  interesting  case,  as  well  as  a  variation  of 
the  given  dream  are  given  in  a  later  chapter^^  I  will  merely 
state  that  the  patient  showed  most  of  the  mechanisms 


HOMOSEXUALITY  307 

given  by  Freud  and  Sadger,  and  after  about  six  months' 
treatment  I  discharged  him  as  cured. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  seen  hundreds  of 
homosexuals  within  the  last  twelve  years  but  found  only 
few  who  are  really  willing  to  be  cured,  and  of  these  only 
some  are  curable  by  psychoanalysis.  It  is  quite  probable 
that  the  latter  belong  to  a  special  type  of  homosexuality. 
Many  so-called  homosexuals  are  defectives  who  are  not 
only  inverts  but  everything  else  that  is  abnormal  or  infan- 
tile. I  always  refuse  to  take  such  cases  for  treatment  as 
nothing  can  be  done  for  them.  After  studying  a  case  for  a 
little  while  one  can  always  tell  whether  he  is  dealing  with  a 
defective,  a  mentally  normal  person  who  really  wishes  to  be 
cured,  or  who  wants  to  be  treated  for  a  special  selfish  motive. 
Many  inverts  seek  treatment  because  they  are  troubled  by 
the  law,  others  because  they  wish  to  marry  a  rich  woman. 
They  cannot  be  cured. 

Perhaps  the  most  pathetic  cases  I  have  seen  are  those  who 
became  homosexual  because  heterosexual  outlet  was  denied 
to  them.  Here,  too,  one  must  assume  some  inherent  weak- 
ness but  there  are  some  cases  who  show  no  weakness  or 
very  little  of  it.  Of  the  many  cases  I  wUl  give  briefly  a  case 
referred  to  me  by  Dr.  Beverly  Tucker.  A  clergyman  of 
over  fifty  years,  who  for  many  years  had  been  honored  and 
respected  in  his  community  was  found  to  be  homosexual. 
As  soon  as  it  was  discovered  by  a  few  members  of  his  con- 
gregation he  was  driven  out  of  the  city  within  twenty-four 
hours.  As  far  as  I  could  discover,  this  man  was  sexually 
normal  when  he  married  but  his  wife  was  so  prudish  and 
hysterical  that  she  forever  refused  any  sexual  relations. 
In  the  beginning  of  his  married  life  there  were  some  conflicts 


308  *  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

about  it  but  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  he  could  not  possibly 
leave  his  wife  for  refusing  him  sex,  which  he  was  always 
taught  was  a  degrading  function.  So  he  lived  and  struggled 
until  one  day,  about  twenty  years  after  marriage  he  felt 
attracted  to  a  colored  man  and  thus  his  homosexuality 
began.  He  was  soon  detected  and  blackmailed  and  when 
he  sought  protection  of  the  police  they  gathered  all  the 
needed  evidence  against  him  and  then  reported  him  to  the 
elders  of  the  church.  No  effort  was  made  to  find  out  the 
facts,  the  crime  was  too  dastardly  and  the  good  men  acted 
accordingly.  And  yet  that  man  was  not  a  criminal  but  a 
sufferer  who  deserved  sympathy.  He  was  a  victim  of  a 
rotten  sex  morality. 

Elsewhere  I  hope  to  write  more  on  this  important  subject. 
I  merely  give  a  mere  outline  of  these  obscure  phenomena, 
hoping  that  it  may  help  to  remove  some  of  the  foolish 
prejudices  to  which  these  unfortunates  are  subjected. 

References 

1.  Hirschfeld,  Magnus:  Das  Ergebnis  der  statistischen  Unter- 
suchungen  iiber  den  Prozentsatz  der  Homosexuellen,  Jahrb.  f. 
sexuelle  Zwischenstufen,  1904,  vi.     109. 

2.  Bloch,  Ivan:  Das  Sexualleben  unserer  Zeit,  Marcus,  Berlin, 
1909,  p.  543. 

3.  Freud:  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex.,  p.  2. 

4.  Similar  views  are  expressed  by  Coriat  in  his  paper  on  Homo- 
sexuality, New  York  Med.  Jour.,  March,  1913. 

5.  Freud:  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  p.  9. 

6.  Cf.  page  55. 

7.  Moll:  Handbuch  der  Sexualwissenschaften,  p.  654. 

8.  Freud:  Ueber  Infantile  Sexualtheorien  Sammlung  Kleiner 
Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  Zweite  Folge,  Deuticke,  Wein. 

9.  CJ.  Chap.  VIII. 

10.  Compare  the  works  of  Krafft-Ebing  and  Schrenck-Notzing. 


HOMOSEXUALITY  309 

11.  See  Moll,  Handbuch  der  Sexualwissenschaften,  p.  662. 

12.  Freud:  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  and  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  translated  by  Brill,  Moflfat,  Yard  &  Co. 

13.  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  p.  64. 

14.  Sadger:  Ein  Fall  von  multipler  Perversion,  p.  112. 

15.  One  of  the  first  sexual  peculiarities  noticed  by  roany  of  the 
inverts  studied  by  me  was  an  obsessive  craving  to  see  the  male 
genitals. 

16.  Sadger:  Ein  Fall  von  multipler  Perversion,  p.  112. 

17.  Cf.  Chapter  XIV. 

18.  C/.  Chapter  XVI. 


CHAPTER  XII 

HYSTERICAL  FANCIES  AND  DREAMY  STATES 

When  we  enter  into  the  deeper  mental  processes,  espe- 
cially into  those  of  hysteria,  we  invariably  come  across  the 
quaint  yet  familiar  psychic  mechanisms  of  fancies  or 
day  dreams.  Freud  tells  us  that  fancy  formation  is 
common  to  both  sexes  and  that  the  fancies  represent  wish 
gratifications  emanating  from  privation  and  longing. 
Like  dreams  they  serve  to  relieve  the  overburdened  mind 
and  to  secure  comfort  not  to  be  obtained  in  reality.  They 
are  called  "day  dreams"  because  they  furnish  the  key 
for  the  understanding  of  night  dreams.^  The  hyster- 
ical fancies  are  jealously  hidden  as  they  belong  to  the 
most  intimate  recesses  of  personality.  They  are  found 
in  both  normal  and  neurotic  individuals,  but  it  is  in  the 
latter  that  they  obtain  prominence  in  the  formation  of 
symptoms.  I  fully  agree  with  Freud  that  all  analyzable 
hysterical  attacks  prove  to  be  involuntary  incursions  of 
day  dreams.  Such  fancies  may  remain  conscious  or 
merge  into  the  unconscious.  In  the  latter  case  they  may 
become  pathogenic  and  express  themselves  in  symptoms 
and  attacks.  Under  favorable  conditions  it  is  possible 
for  consciousness  to  grasp  and  bring  to  light  such  uncon- 
scious fancies.  Freud  relates  that  one  of  his  patients 
whose  attention  was  called  to  these  fancies  later  narrated 
the  following  occurrence:  While  in  the  street  she  suddenly 

found  herself  in  tears  and  reflecting  over  the  cause  of  her 

310 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY    STATES  311 

weeping  the  fancy  became  clear  to  her.  She  fancied  her- 
self in  delicate  relationship  with  a  musician  famous  in  the 
city  whom  she  did  not  know.  In  her  fancy  she  bore  him 
a  child  (she  was  childless) ;  later  he  deserted  her,  leaving  her 
in  misery  with  the  child.  At  this  stage  of  the  romance  she 
burst  into  tears.  One  of  my  hysterical  patients  worried 
over  the  fact  that  every  once  in  a  while  she  suddenly 
noticed  that  she  was  talking  to  herself,  she  was  afraid  that 
this  was  a  sign  of  insanity.  I  asked  her  to  make  an  effort 
to  recall  what  she  said  to  herself  and  she  remembered  that 
the  last  time  she  talked  to  herself  she  said:  "Oh  you  skunk 
Oh  you  brute!"  as  if  she  was  angry  at  some  one.  She  did 
not  know  to  whom  she  referred,  indeed  she  could  not  recall 
that  she  ever  used  the  word  skunk  consciously.  We  soon 
found  that  she  had  many  unconscious  revenge  fancies 
directed  against  her  former  employer  with  whom  she  had 
a  very  disagreeable  affair  three  years  before.  These 
unconscious  fancies  appeared  when  her  present  employer 
began  to  make  advances  to  her. 

Such  unconscious  fancies  have  either  been  unconscious 
from  the  first,  having  been  formed  in  the  unconscious,  or, 
what  is  more  usual,  they  were  once  conscious  and  then 
intentionally  forgotten  and  repressed  into  the  uncon- 
scious. Their  content  usually  undergoes  many  trans- 
formations and  the  resultant  symptom  or  attack  is  often 
a  very  distorted  mechanism.  Analysis  shows  that  the 
unconscious  fancies  are  intimately  connected  with  the 
person's  sexual  life.  They  are  identical  with  the  fancy 
which  led  to  sexual  gratification  during  the  period  of 
masturbation.  The  masturbating  act  originally  consists 
of  two  parts,  the  provocation  of  the  fancy  and  the  active 


312  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

performance  of  self  gratification  at  its  height.  It  is  first 
autoerotic  and  undertaken  for  the  pleasure  obtained 
from  an  erogenous  zone,  but  later  it  becomes  blended 
with  a  wish  phantasy  referring  to  the  love  object  and 
serves  as  a  partial  realization  of  the  situation  in  which 
this  fancy  culminates.  If  this  masturbo-fantastic  grati- 
fication remains  undone,  the  fancy  changes  from  a  con- 
scious to  an  unconscious  one.  If  no  other  manner  of 
sexual  gratification  occurs,  that  is,  if  the  person  remains 
an  abstainer  and  does  not  succeed  in  fuUy  sublimating 
his  libido,  the  unconscious  fancies  become  refreshed. 
They  grow  exuberantly  and  at  least  a  fragment  of  their 
content  forms  into  symptoms  or  attacks. 

Most  hysterical  symptoms  are  merely  unconscious 
fancies  brought  to  light  by  "conversion,"  and  inasmuch 
as  they  are  somatic  expressions  they  are  often  taken  from 
the  spheres  of  the  sexual  feelings  and  motor  innervation 
which  originally  accompanied  the  former  still  conscious 
fancy.  The  disuse  of  onanism  is  thus  made  retrogressive 
and  the  final  aim  of  the  whole  morbid  process,  the  restora- 
tion of  the  primary  sexual  gratification,  though  never 
attaining  perfection,  always  comes  near  to  it.  When  we 
analyze  these  unconscious  fancies  of  hysterics  we  find 
that  they  correspond  in  content  to  the  situations  of  grati- 
fication enacted  by  perverts  consciously.  Thus,  an  hyster- 
ical woman  of  thirty  years  went  through  strange  episodes 
lasting  from  a  few  hours  to  days  and  weeks.  One  of  these 
attacks  which  recurred  quite  often  manifested  itself  by 
extreme  anxiety  during  which  the  patient  was  very  restless 
and  anxious.  She  acted  as  though  she  was  terrified.  She 
moaned  and   cried,   uttering  the  words   "virtue,   doctor, 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY    STATES  313 

heroine,"  and  made  continuous  attempts  to  get  out  of 
the  room.  The  attack  was  always  followed  by  an  hysterical 
paralysis  and  excruciating  pain  in  her  legs  which  lasted  for 
a  few  days.  At  times  the  attacks  were  characterized  by 
some  variations,  ending  with  the  arc  de  cercle,  but  they 
were  essentially  as  described.  Analysis  showed  that  she 
identified  herself  with  Maupassant's  Clochette  who  broke 
her  leg  by  jumping  out  of  a  second  story  window  when 
surprised  with  her  cowardly  lover  during  a  tryst  in  a  loft.^ 
These  attacks  came  on,  first  after  some  gossip  about  her 
former  love  affair  was  repeated  to  her,  and  meant  to  show 
that  these  statements  were  false,  or  in  other  words,  that 
like  Clochette  "she  was  a  martyr  and  a  noble  soul."  The 
words  she  muttered  were  those  repeated  by  the  doctor 
in  the  story  who  said  of  Clochette :  "  That  was  her  only  love 
affair  and  she  died  a  virgin."  The  identification  was 
determined  by  the  following  facts:  She  had  a  love  affair 
lasting  for  about  a  year  which  terminated  with  the  sudden 
disappearance  of  her  fianc^.  Some  evil  tongues  had  it 
that  she  was  left  in  a  delicate  state  and  her  mother  thought 
seriously  of  asking  the  family  physician  to  silence  the 
gossip.  When  she  became  hysterical  one  of  her  symptoms 
was  pain  all  over  the  body  especially  in  her  legs.  It  was 
during  a  rest  cure  that  she  read  Maupassant's  Clochette 
which  readily  took  her  fancy  not  because  it  showed  a 
striking  resemblance  to  her  case,  but  because  she  wished  to 
be  like  Clochette  and  be  defended  by  her  doctor.  In  the 
course  of  time  this  wish  allied  itself  with  other  wishes  and 
the  whole  thing  was  subjected  to  the  influence  of  the 
psychic  censor.  That  accounted  for  the  different  variations 
which  as  in  dreams  were  produced  by  condensation,  multi- 


314  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

pie  identification  and  inversion  of  events,  etc.^  Thus  the 
arc  de  cercle  was  simply  an  inversion  of  the  position  during 
coitus. 

Another  patient,  Miss  M.,  thirty-six  years  old,  an  hys- 
teric with  many  degenerative  trends,  went  through  many 
minor  and  major  attacks  which  were  based  on  real  and 
fancied  experiences.  Her  main  symptom  was  an  astasia 
abasia  which  lasted  for  years.  She  could  neither  walk  nor 
sit  up  for  any  length  of  time  and  was  forced  to  remain  in 
bed  in  a  peculiar  constrained  attitude,  her  body  forming 
an  angle,  her  head  and  legs  being  raised  high  by  many 
pillows.  Analysis  brought  out  the  following  facts:  As  a 
child  she  masturbated  herself  and  with  other  children  and 
resorted  to  many  coprophilic  activities  such  as  playing 
with  urine  and  feces.  This  was  followed  by  a  marked 
repression  which  gave  rise  to  extreme  feelings  of  disgust 
and  morality.  This  stage  was  followed  by  a  failure  in 
the  repression  and  a  return  of  the  things  repressed.  She 
then  evinced  a  polymorphous  perverse  sexuality  and 
practised  many  coprophilic  activities.  She  refused  to 
empty  her  bowels  for  days  and  sometimes  for  over  a  week 
in  spite  of  all  medications.  While  taking  a  rest  cure  in 
a  well-known  sanatorium  she  made  believe  that  she  could 
not  attend  to  her  natural  wants,  causing  thereby  much 
worriment  and  alarm  to  the  doctors  and  nurses.  While 
they  exerted  all  their  efforts  to  alleviate  her  apparent 
distress  she  was  stealing  towels  and  used  them  as  receptacles 
for  her  excretions.  She  secretly  threw  these  out  of  the 
window  or  hid  them  in  her  room.  Her  fancies  were  very 
prolific  and  the  material  for  them  was  furnished  by  both 
fiction  and  reality.     She  was  an  ardent  reader  and  what- 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES   AND    DREAMY   STATES  315 

ever  appealed  to  her  fancy  was  immediately  taken  up  and 
elaborated  into  her  complexes.  Her  imaginative  but 
rather  defective  mind  made  no  distinction  between  fact 
and  fancy  so  that  whatever  was  once  a  fancy  based  on 
something  read  or  heard  soon  became  to  her  an  actual 
experience. 

She  often  recalled  the  typical  pseudologia  phantastica. 
It  was  due  to  this  that  she  accused  every  physician  coming 
in  professional  contact  with  her  of  having  sexual  designs 
upon  her.  It  was  really  comical  to  hear  the  accusations 
she  brought  against  at  least  a  dozen  of  our  most  reputable 
men  in  the  medical  profession.  She  stated  that  everyone 
of  them  wanted  to  make  her  his  mistress.  She  had  abso- 
lutely no  reason  to  give  for  her  belief  and  psychoanalysis 
showed  that  they  were  merely  suppressed  wish-phan- 
tasies which  came  to  the  surface  as  outer  perceptions. 
This  is  the  usual  mechanism  of  all  hysterical  accusations 
against  doctors.  I  have  seen  a  number  of  such  patients 
who  publicly  and  privately  accused  physicians  and  dentists 
of  sexual  attacks  while  under  the  influence  of  an  anaes- 
thetic. In  all  cases  it  was  satisfactorily  shown  that  such 
an  attack  would  have  been  impossible  under  the  circum- 
stances, and  when  ever  an  analysis  was  done  I  always  found 
that  the  wish-phantasy  preceded  the  operation  in  question. 
Such  patients  belong  to  the  sexually  sensitive  types  who 
imagine  that  every  man  has  sex  design  upon  them.  Such 
fears  are  only  repressed  wishes  which  are  readily  realized 
wherever  there  is  the  slightest  possibility  for  it;  a  semi- 
conscious or  unconscious  state  produced  by  an  anaesthetic 
in  which  one  feels  absolutely  helpless  furnishes  an  excellent 
medium  for  such  realizations. 


316  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  more  deeply  I  penetrated  into  the  patient's  uncon- 
scious the  more  I  became  convinced  that  almost  every- 
one of  her  symptoms  and  -attacks  was  determined  by  some 
former  fancy.  She  read  some  erotic  story  and  identified 
herself  with  one  of  the  characters,  and  then  lived  through 
the  whole  situation  over  and  over  again.  As  she  was 
bisexual  she  often  identified  herself  with  the  male  char- 
acter of  the  story  and  then  lived  through,  as  it  were,  his 
part.  A  recurrent  episode  of  this  nature  was  the  follow- 
ing: She  began  with  a  period  of  exaltation  during  which 
she  would  be  very  talkative  and  vivacious.  She  would 
play  the  piano  and  act  some  part  (she  was  once  an  actress) , 
usually  the  part  of  a  man.  This  would  continue  from 
an  hour  to  a  few  days  and  would  suddenly  be  interrupted 
by  severe  headaches,  nausea  with  occasional  vomiting 
and  a  marked  aggravation  of  the  pains  in  her  groin,  abdo- 
men and  legs  which  she  called  "The  three-cornered  stone 
pains."  The  analysis  brought  out  the  following  facts: 
At  a  very  early  age  her  father,  wishing  to  stop  her  from 
crying,  once  put  his  hand  under  her  dress  and  pinched  her 
bare  buttock  and  legs.  This  was  often  repeated  on 
similar  occasions  and  always  had  its  effect.  She  then 
became  very  sensitive  in  these  regions.  She  could  not  tol- 
erate the  slightest  pressure  there  and  was  always  complaining 
of  her  shoes  and  stockings.  On  one  of  these  occasions 
when  her  father  impatiently  asked  her  what  ailed  her  she 
lied  and  said  that  the  skin  was  rubbed  off  her  foot.  He 
forced  her  to  remove  her  shoe  in  the  presence  of  many 
strangers  and  as  no  abrasion  was  found  she  was  very 
much  humiliated.  About  the  same  time  her  mother  once 
forced  her  to  sleep  with  a  young  man  because  there  were 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY   STATES  317 

many  guests  in  the  house.  She  again  received  a  psychic 
trauma  in  the  same  region.  Added  to  this  she  has  a  rather 
high  instep  which  serves  to  accentuate  her  sensitiveness  in 
her  legs  and  feet.  All  these  traumas  took  place  before  the 
age  of  five  years.  At  the  age  of  puberty  she  attended  a 
private  school  and  one  night  she  witnessed  by  chance  a 
homosexual  act  between  a  teacher  and  a  favorite  pupil. 
Years  later  she  was  abnormally  fond  of  X.,  a  girl  of  her  own 
age.  It  was  about  this  time  that  she  read  Balzac's  Droll 
Stories  and  was  very  much  affected  by  one  of  them.  It 
dealt  with  a  gay  cavalier  who  seduced  an  innocent  girl. 
This  story  produced  many  erotic  feelings  and  fancies  which 
continued  for  months  until  one  day  she  dressed  in  male 
attire  and  called  on  X.  She  made  believe  that  she  was 
doing  this  just  for  fun  and  was  demonstrating  to  X.  how 
well  she  could  play  the  part  of  a  gay  cavalier.  The  demon- 
stration ended  with  a  gross  homosexual  episode  between 
herself  and  X.,  and  as  the  latter  was  at  the  time  engaged 
to  be  married  she  became  very  remorseful  and  blamed  M. 
for  leading  her  into  temptation,  adding  "How  can  I 
look  John  (fiance)  in  the  face?"  This,  in  turn,  caused 
reproach  and  self-accusation  in  M.,  who  brooded  over  it 
for  some  time  and  gradually  repressed  it.  The  attack 
mentioned  above  appeared  shortly  thereafter.  It  repre- 
sented a  fragment  of  sexual  activity  which  becomes  quite 
transparent  when  we  think  of  the  episode  with  X. 

Some  fancies  are  pure  fabrications  constructed  of  the 
patient's  wishes.  Thus,  an  intelligent  young  woman  of 
thirty  years  sent  to  me  for  treatment  by  Dr.  Israel  Strauss 
had  one  fancy  which  she  lived  through  from  time  to  time. 
She   imagined    herself   married   to   a  tall,  handsome  and 


318  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

very  wealthy  man.  She  had  three  children,  the  like  of 
whom  did  not  exist.  She  lived  on  a  beautiful  yacht  and 
entertained  only  such  people  as  she  and  her  husband 
really  liked.  This  state  of  blissful  happiness  existed 
for  a  few  days  during  which  she  was  happy  and  contented. 
Then  the  whole  structure  crumbled.  Her  husband  and 
children  died  and  she  was  left  alone  in  terrible  depression 
lasting  for  days.  She  assured  me  that  her  reactions 
were  very  vivid  and  real,  being  mindful,  however,  that  the 
whole  episode  was  only  a  fancy. 

Besides  these  fancies  we  come  across  other  strange 
psychic  processes  which  are  designated  as  hysterical 
dreamy  states.  They  are  not  the  protracted  crepuscular 
episodes  followed  by  partial  or  complete  amnesia  which 
were  described  by  Ganser  and  others  and  often  taken  as 
psychic  equivalents  of  motor  epilepsy,  but  they  represent 
these  peculiar  conditions  so  often  observed  in  psycho- 
neurotics which  were  first  described  by  Lowenfeld'*  and 
later  submitted  to  a  thorough  psychoanalytic  study  by 
Abraham.^  The  characteristics  of  these  states  will  be 
best  described  by  recalling  to  you  the  familiar  old  fable 
which  is  said  to  have  originated  in  India  and  passed  from 
the  Sanskrit  versions  with  many  variations  into  many 
languages.  The  story  selected  by  me  tells  how  an  oriental 
glass  vender  sat  cross  legged  wih  his  basket  of  glassware 
in'  front  of  him.  While  wishing  for  purchasers  he  merged 
into  the  following  reverie:  "If  I  sell  this  whole  basket 
of  glass  I  shall  have  ten  dinars.  I  will  buy  glassware  for 
the  whole  sum  and  when  that  is  sold  I  shall  have  twenty 
dinars.  I  will  then  buy  glass  for  twenty  dinars  and  sell 
it  for  forty  dinars.     For  this  sum  I  shall  again  buy  glassware 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY    STATES  319 

and  when  that  will  be  sold  I  shall  be  worth  eighty  dinars," 
etc.  In  his  reverie  he  kept  doubling  his  fortune  until  he 
was  immensely  rich.  He  bought  enchanted  palaces,  lived 
in  luxury  and  lavished  fortunes.  His  fancies  became  more 
and  more  extravagant.  He  was  very  happy  and  elated 
when  a  slight  movement  suddenly  reminded  him  of  his 
basket  and  the  thought  flashed  through  his  mind  "What's 
the  use  of  bothering  with  such  worthless  stuff?"  And 
with  that  he  kicked  the  basket  over.  The  clanging  of  the 
broken  glass  interrupted  his  day  dream  and  brought  him 
back  to  himself. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  think  of  this  story  which,  si  non  e 
vero,  e  ben  trovato,  and  examine  the  different  mental  opera- 
tions which  enter  into  its  formation.  It  shows  the  fol- 
lowing fairly  well  defined  stages:  There  is  a  first  stage 
of  fantastic  exaltation,  the  content  of  which  deals  with 
the  individual's  hopes  and  aspirations.  The  glass  vender 
is  in  a  state  of  euphoria.  From  a  poor  man  he  is  sud- 
denly transformed  into  a  man  of  wealth  and  his  fortune 
is  rapidly  increasing.  This  is  followed  by  a  stage  of 
dream-like  withdrawal  from  reality.  He  is  no  longer 
controlled  by  logical  judgment  and  reasoning.  His  fancies, 
therefore,  run  riot  as  it  were.  Everything  is  changed. 
It  is  like  a  dream  where  time,  space  and  natural  obstacles 
are  absent.  He  amasses  an  enormous  fortune  and  owns 
palaces,  etc.  In  brief,  he  is  no  longer  himself.  This 
is  followed  by  a  very  rapid  third  stage  which  is  distin- 
guished by  a  suspension  of  consciousness,  an  absentmind- 
edness  during  which  there  are  no  thoughts  so  to  speak,  and 
the  whole  episode  is  followed  by  depression  characterized 
by  anxiety  with  its  concomitant  manifestations.®     I  need 


320  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

hardly  say  that  our  hero  must  have  been  depressed  on 
emerging  from  his  revery. 

In  almost  all  the  cases  observed  by  me  these  three 
stages,  which  were  originally  described  by  Abraham/ 
could  readily  be  distinguished,  but  I  should  like  to  add 
that  the  first  stage  is  always  preceded  by  a  period  of 
craving. 

Without  going  into  detailed  histories  I  shall  cite  some 
of  my  own  observations. 

Case  I. — I.  C.  was  seen  by  me  in  the  neurological  department  of 
the  Vanderbilt  CUnic  in  November,  1908.  Among  other  things  he 
complained  of  strange  thoughts  which  interfered  with  his  work.  He 
stated  that  he  was  a  weaver  by  trade  and  that  for  months  he  was 
hardly  able  to  attend  to  his  work.  He  explained  that  weaving 
required  concentration  of  attention,  as  a  great  deal  of  counting  had 
to  be  done  and  that  a  single  mistake  spoiled  the  work.  His 
"foolish"  thoughts  would  come  in  spite  of  all  effort  to  keep  them  away. 
They  absorbed  his  mind  to  an  extent  that  he  forgot  his  work  and 
unconsciously  stopped  weaving  and  continued  dreaming  until  aroused. 
As  examples  he  gave  a  few  experiences  of  the  previous  day,  which, 
in  his  own  words,  read  as  follows:  "I  am  working  and  unconsciously 
I  begin  to  think  what  I  should  do  if  I  had  two  thousand  dollars.  I 
start  a  shop  and  soon  earn  a  lot  of  money  because  I  oppress  my 
employees.  With  the  money  thus  gained  I  open  a  big  factory  and 
employ  a  lot  of  greenhorns  whom  I  force  to  work  long  hours  for  very 
little  pay.  I  enlarge  my  business.  I  have  hundreds  of  people 
working  for  me.  I  become  greater  and  greater  ....  when  I 
suddenly  find  myself  crying  because  I  have  lost  all  my  money  in 
WaU  Street." 

"I  marry  a  very  nice  girl.  She  is  very  much  in  love  with  me,  but 
she  is  afraid  of  me.  I  am  verj'  tyrannical  and  brutal.  She  has  to  do 
what  I  tell  her,  otherwise  I  beat  her.  She  cries  and  begs  me  not  to 
kill  her,  but  I  pay  no  attention  to  her.  I  become  more  and  more 
excited.  I  hardly  know  what  I  do  when  I  suddenly  wake  up  wringing 
my  hands  because  she  is  dead." 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY   STATES  321 

He  recited  many  more  day  dreams,  but  they  were  all  of  the  same 
nature.     They  all  dealt  with  wealth  and  murder. 

Recalling  Freud's  saying  that  the  contented  individual 
does  not  indulge  in  fantasies  I  assumed  that  these  dreamy- 
states  must  represent  some  of  the  patient's  wishes,  and 
viewed  superficially  one  may  think  that  the  first  dreamy 
state  corroborates  this  assumption.  The  patient  is  a  poor 
weaver  who  believes  himself  oppressed  by  his  employer 
and  therefore  dreams  of  changing  places  with  his  oppressor. 
His  day  dream  is  simply  a  realization  of  his  wishes.  But 
a  number  of  questions  arise  as  soon  as  we  take  a  closer 
view  of  the  subject.  In  the  first  place  it  cannot  be  said 
that  it  is  really  a  wish  realization  as  the  money  thus  rapidly 
gained  is  as  rapidly  lost,  leaving  the  patient  unhappier 
than  he  was.  It  may  also' be  asked  why  the  patient  is  not 
satisfied  with  the  everyday  conscious  day  dreaming.  Why 
do  these  dreamy  states  come  in  attacks?  Why  are  they 
accompanied  by  complete  oblivion  to  external  impressions, 
especially  at  their  height,  and  why  does  the  patient  per- 
ceive them  as  unreal  and  strange?  Moreover,  when  we 
recall  the  second  dream,  we  can  no  longer  think  of  any  wish 
realization,  for  the  patient  is  single  and  is  very  much  in  love 
with  his  fiancee  whom  he  wishes  to  marry. 

From  the  study  of  dreams  we  have  learned  that  no 
matter  how  absurd  a  dream  may  seem  it  nevertheless 
contains  sense  and  meaning  if  we  find  its  latent  content, 
and  that  every  dream,  and  for  that  matter  every  psy- 
chotic sjonptom,  contains  the  hidden  fulfilment  of  a 
repressed  wish^  which  usually  refers  to  the  two  great 
impulses,  hunger  and  love.  Freud  has  also  shown  that 
certain   episodic    manifestations    of    hysteria    are    simply 

21 


322  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

substitutive  gratifications  for  the  abandoned  masturba- 
tion,^ and  Abraham  maintains  that  the  same  is  true  for 
the  hysterical  dreamy  state.  Let  us  see  whether  this  is 
true  in  our  patient. 

I  regret  that  I  was  unable  to  make  a  complete  analysis 
of  his  case.  The  patient  was  a  clinic  one  and,  as  often 
happens  in  such  cases,  the  analysis  had  to  be  given  up. 
Still  the  facts  that  I  have  obtained  are  sufficient  to  con- 
firm the  assumption  that  his  dreamy  states  were  sub- 
stitutions for  his  masturbation.  His  history  was,  briefly, 
as  follows : 

I.  C.  was  twenty-two  years  old  and  had  masturbated  on  and  off 
since  the  age  of  twelve.  From  a  very  early  age  he  had  been  suffering 
from  a  mixed  neurosis  (anxiety  hysteria  and  compulsion  neurosis) 
which  was  due  to  many  conflicts  and  repressions.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  years  he  consorted  with  women  and  masturbated  exces- 
sively besides.  He  came  to  New  York  at  twenty  years  of  age  and  after 
that  tried  very  hard  to  abstain  from  sexual  indulgence,  but  often 
failed.  At  twenty-two  he  fell  in  love  and  decided  to  lead  a  life 
of  sexual  abstinence  until  his  marriage  which  was  to  take  place  in 
March,  1909.  The  sadistic  day  dreams  described  above  came  on 
after  a  few  weeks  of  hard  struggle.  He  was  always  given  to  day 
dreaming,  but  he  himself  sharply  distinguished  between  his  former 
air  castles  and  his  present  day  dreams,  by  saying  that  the  latter  were 
beyond  his  control  because  they  wei'e  always  accompanied  by  a 
"short  fainting  spell."  We  are  therefore  justified  in  saying  that 
there  was  a  direct  relationship  between  the  suppressed  sexual  activi- 
ties and  his  fantastic  day  dreams. 

If  we  bear  in  mind  the  different  stages  described  above 
and  follow  the  act  of  masturbation  we  can  at  once  see  a 
distinct  analogy.  Here  as  there  one  observes  a  preliminary 
craving  followed  by  a  pleasurable  stage,  and  the  second 
and  third  stages  of  the  day  dream,  the  withdrawal  from 


HYSTERICAL   FANCIES   AND   DREAMY  STATES  323 

reality  and  absent  mindedness  fully  correspond  to  the 
increasing  sexual  excitement  and  its  acme  at  the  moment 
of  ejaculation.  It  is  well  known  that  coitus  was  com- 
pared by  many  writers  to  a  minor  epileptic  attack.  Also 
the  terminal  depression  corresponds  to  the  same  stage  of 
coitus  or  its  inadequate  outlet,  masturbation.  Post 
coitum  animal  triste  is  an  old  saying  equally  true  of  mas- 
turbation which  is  always  followed  by  self-reproach. 

To  illustrate  the  psychological  significance  of  dreamy 
states  the  following  case  will  serve : 

Case  II. — A.,  was  a  rising  journalist  of  twenty-six  years.  He  was 
addicted  to  dreamy  states  most  of  which  showed  the  three  stages  cited 
above.  A  few  examples  recited  by  himself  will  give  us  an  idea  of 
their  nature:  "I  am  running  a  race  and  I  feel  fine  because  I  am  sure 
of  winning.  I  am  accidentally  struck  in  the  thigh  with  the  spiked 
shoe  of  one  of  my  competitors.  I  am  bleeding,  but  I  don't  seem  to 
feel  it.  I  am  very  excited  because  I  am  getting  ahead  of  the  others. 
Some  trainers  try  to  stop  me  because  they  imagine  I  am  hurt,  but 
I  punch  them  and  run  on.  I  win  the  race,  but  collapse  from  exhaus- 
tion.    I  am  carried  out  amidst  the  applause  of  the  crowd." 

"I  am  taking  a  walk  with  a  party  of  young  men  and  women.  We 
are  held  up  by  a  highwayman.  We  all  submit  to  it.  I  stand  with 
my  hands  up,  but  taking  advantage  of  the  highwajinan's  momentary 
inattention  I  throw  myself  upon  him,  take  away  his  pistol  and  strike 
him  on  the  head  with  it.  I  beat  him  into  submission  and  then  lead 
him  by  the  collar  to  the  police  station  amidst  the  great  applause  of 
my  companions,  who,  being  Jews,  are  astonished  at  my  bravery. 

''I  escape  from  home  and  make  my  way  to  China.  I  insinuate 
myself  into  court  and  become  a  favorite  of  the  Dowager  Empress. 
I  am  put  in  charge  of  the  army  which  I  train  to  great  eflBciency.  A 
rebellion  breaks  out.  I  lead  the  army.  The  emperor,  who  is  on  the 
other  side  is  killed  or  dies  (vague).  As  a  reward  for  my  services  I 
marry  the  Dowager  Empress  who  looks  like  my  mother.  This 
happiness  does  not  last  very  long,  for  I  am  deposed  and  returned  to 
New  York  an  exile." 

The  patient  stated  that  these  day  dreams  usually  came  when  he 


324  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

was  writing  and  that  they  were  entirely  beyond  his  control.  He 
himself  referred  to  them  "as  a  sort  of  absent-mindedness  during 
which  I  am  like  a  somnambulist." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  both  patients  the  dreams 
appeared  during  mental  concentration.  This  fully  cor- 
roborates what  Freud  states  in  his  Three  Contributions 
to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  viz.,  that  mental  application  to  an 
intellectual  accomplishment  will  often  result,  especially 
in  youthful  persons,  in  a  simultaneous  sexual  excitement. 
Another  striking  point  in  all  these  dreamy  states  is  the 
emotional  lability  in  the  different  stages.  The  dreamer 
distinctlj'"  realizes  that  the  first  two  stages  are  of  a  pleasur- 
able nature,  while  the  last  stage  is  of  a  depressive  painful 
nature. 

I  shall  not  go  into  long  analytical  explanations.  I  will 
content  myself  by  stating  that  here,  too,  the  day  dreams 
were  substitutes  for  the  abandoned  masturbation  and 
will  proceed  with  the  analysis  of  day  dreams  proper. 

We  have  said  above  that  the  psychosexual  constitution 
of  the  individual  is  made  up  of  many  components  and 
partial  impulses  which  run  through  a  definite  evolution. 
These  impulses  are  active  in  infancy,  but  normally  they 
are  gradually  repressed,  leaving  only  slight  traces  of  their 
former  existence.  As  we  discussed  this  question  above 
I  shall  briefly  refer  to  the  impulses  of  exhibitionism  and 
cruelty  only. 

It  is  well  known  that  children  like  to  show  themselves 
naked,  that  is  they  like  to  exhibit.  It  is  not  at  all  unusual 
to  see  children  of  both  sexes  exposing  themselves  coram 
publico.  Shame  is  a  matter  of  training.  I  know  a  little 
girl  of  six  years,  who  at  the  age  of  three  or  four  used  to 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY    STATES  325 

invite  her  grown-up  acquaintances  to  be  present  while  she 
took  her  bath  and  who  now  blushes  at  any  allusion  to  it. 
That  the  Golden  Rule  is  not  inherent  in  the  human  being 
is  also  well  known.  Cruelty  in  our  sense  is  common  to 
childhood.  I  believe  it  is  La  Fontaine  who  calls  childhood 
"an  age  without  pity."  That  cruelty  and  exhibitionism 
are  intimately  connected  with  sex  is  hardly  necessary  to 
mention.  Naturalists  and  anthropologists  have  repeatedly 
called  attention  to  it.  Freud,  who  has  perhaps  penetrated 
deeper  than  any  one  else,  shows^°  that  when  these  impulses 
are  repressed  by  a  process  of  training  and  education  they 
form  certain  reactions  like  modesty  and  sympathy  which 
go  to  make  up  the  character  of  the  individual.  But  as 
no  impulse  is  entirely  suspended,  one  can  always  find 
some  traces  of  it  in  the  individual's  character.  Thus 
persons  inclined  to  obscene  joking  usually  conceal  a  desire 
to  exhibit  and  persons  having  a  strong  sadistic  or  cruelty 
component  in  their  sexuality,  which  is  more  or  less 
inhibited,  are  most  successful  with  the  tendency  wit  of 
aggression.  ^^  If  for  some  reason  these  impulses  cannot 
be  repressed  or  when  later  in  life  there  is  a  failure  of 
repression,  the  individual  remains  either  a  sexual  exhibition'- 
ist  or  sadist,  or  he  suffers  from  a  neurosis  in  which  theso 
impulses  come  to  the  surface  in  some  negative  form. 
One  of  the  distressing  symptoms  for  which  A.  soughfy 
relief  was  an  irresistible  impulse  to  pinch  women.  His 
fancies  simply  reflected  his  symptoms.  The  first  two 
day  dreams  nicely  illustrate,  in  a  rather  hidden  form, 
Ms  exhibitionism  as  well  as  his  sadism.  The  third  one, 
referring  to  his  marrying  the  dowager  empress  who  looked 
like  his  mother,  shows  a  very  nice  unconscious  mechanism, 


326  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  so-called  Oedipus  complex.  ^^  His  neurosis  is  the 
result  of  a  conflict  between  his  conscious  resistances  and 
his  unconscious  attachment  to  his  mother.  As  with  every 
little  boy,  his  mother  was  the  first  woman  he  loved,  but 
unlike  the  others  his  libido  remained  fixed  on  her.  This 
is  a  very  common  mechanism  and,  as  shown  by  Abraham, 
accounts  for  so  many  consanguineous  marriages.  Neu- 
rotics, who  are  unconsciously  attached  to  their  parents, 
either  never  marry  because  "no  girl  is  like  mother"  or 
marry  some  member  of  the  family  who  resembles  the 
parent.  As  a  little  boy  our  patient  often  found  home 
too  small  for  him  and  his  father.  He  was  his  rival,  as  it 
were,  for  his  mother's  affection  and  for  that  reason  he 
often  wished  him  dead.  Now  as  a  grown-up  man  he 
still  finds  life  burdensome  because  he  cannot  tolerate 
his  superiors  who  take  the  place  of  his  father  and  he  con- 
sequently entertains  murderous  thoughts  toward  them. 
The  morning  before  this  day  dream  he  read  about  the 
war  in  China  and  that  the  army  had  been  trained  by 
foreign  officers.  This  was  the  main  determinant  of  the 
last  dream,  but  the  other  elements  that  enter  into  its 
formation  are  part  and  parcel  of  his  neurosis.  In  his  day 
dreams  he  runs  away  from  home  and  becomes  a  great 
man,  because  in  reality  he  dislikes  the  idea  of  having  to 
stay  at  home  and  be  supported  by  his  parents  who  lately 
referred  to  it  rather  unkindly.  In  this  rebellion  he  either 
kills  the  emperor  or  he  dies.  Such  vague  statements 
occurring  in  day  or  night  dreams  indicate  a  marked 
repression.  Here  the  emperor  stands  for  his  father. ^^  He 
thus  kills  his  father  and  is  united  to  his  childhood  ideal. 
But,  as  he  is  no  longer  a  child,  the  dream  shows  the  influ- 


i 


HYSTERICAL    FANCIES    AND    DREAMY    STATES  327 

ence  of  the  incest  barriers  which  were  formed  during  his 
development.  He  is  therefore  deposed  and  returned  to 
New  York  an  exile.  This  sudden  fiasco  is  also  constel- 
lated by  the  depressive  emotional  tone  of  the  terminal 
stage  of  masturbation  which  invests,  so  to  say,  the  last 
stage  of  the  day  dream  and  determines  its  character. 
That  A.'s  first  two  day  dreams  lack  the  depressive  thoughts 
which  go  to  make  up  the  terminal  stage  of  masturbation 
is  not  without  reason. 

I  have  purposely  selected  these  examples  because  they 
demonstrate  a  rather  interesting  mechanism.  They  always 
appeared  after  the  patient  practised  interrupted  masturba- 
tion. As  you  know  this  is  a  common  practice  of  mastur- 
bators,  who  imagine  that  loss  of  seminal  fluid  is  loss  of 
vitality. 

Some  fancies  are  extremely  peculiar;  thus  a  very  aggres- 
sive person  in  public  life  entertained  long  fancies  in  which 
he  played  a  role  which  was  the  exact  opposite  of  himself. 
He  thus  fancied  himself  a  slave  to  a  very  brutal  elderly 
woman  who  was  his  wife.  She  made  him  grow  long  hair, 
wait  on  her  and  perform  all  sorts  of  menial  and  degrading 
tasks,  and  kept  him  chained  under  the  table  by  a  ring 
through  his  nose  like  a  bear.  These  fancies  came  contin- 
ually in  all  sorts  of  variations  which  the  patient  lived 
through  sometimes  for  months  at  a  time.  Such  fancies  are 
quite  common  and  are  psychic  manifestations  of  the  sado- 
masochistic components.  This  man  was  brought  up  by  a 
very  brutal  mother  who  punished  him  severly  at  the  slight- 
est misbehavior  on  his  part.  In  reality  he  felt  very  inferior 
and  masochistic  and  as  a  defense  reaction  he  always  acted 
the  "great  fighter." 


328  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  said  that  the  type  of  day  dream- 
ing given  above  is  simply  a  substitution  for  the  abandoned 
masturbation.  The  unrequited  libido  seeking  an  outlet 
invests  those  thoughts  which  are  in  some  way  connected 
with  the  individual's  hopes  and  strivings.  Like  the  wolf 
in  the  lamb's  skin  they  look  quite  innocent  at  jBrst  sight, 
but  on  closer  investigation  it  becomes  very  evident  that 
they  represent  repressed  wishes  of  the  person's  psycho- 
sexual  life  and  thus  constitute  a  concealed  form  of  mental 
masturbation. 

References 

1.  Freud:  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria,  p.  195. 

2.  For  the  Mechanism  of  Identification,  see  Chap.  X. 

3.  Freud:  Allgemeines  uber  den  hysterischen  Anfall,  Sammlung 
kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  Second  series,  Deuticke,  Wien. 

4.  Zentralblatt  fur  Nervenheilkunde,  August,    1909. 

5.  Ueber  hysterische  Traumzustande,  Jahrbuch  fur  Psychoanalyse 
Vol.  II. 

6.  Cf.  Chap.  IV. 

7.  L.  c. 

8.  Cf.  Chap.  III. 

9.  L.  c. 

10.  Three  contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  translated  by  A.  A. 
Brill. 

11.  Cf.  Chap.  XVII. 

12.  Cf.  Chap.  XIII. 

13.  This  is  a  rather  common  identification,  see  Freud:  The  Inter- 
pretation of  Dreams;  also  Chap.  XIII. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  OEDIPUS  COMPLEX 

The  latent  influence  on  normal  persons;  its  negative 
manifestations  in  the  psychoneuroses  and  psychoses 

Of  the  many  interesting  and  valuable  discoveries  fur- 
nished to  us  through  psychoanalysis  none  is  as  impor- 
tant as  those  facts  which  treat  of  the  individual's  relation 
to  the  family  and  society.  In  our  psychoanalytic  work 
with  patients  we  find  that  parents  play  the  leading  part 
in  their  infantile  psychic  life.  This  fact  is  so  universal 
and  important  that  we  may  say  that  unless  it  is  thoroughly 
elaborated  and  discussed  with  the  patient  no  analysis 
is  complete  or  effective.  Studies  made  of  psychoneu- 
rotics amply  demonstrate  that  contrary  to  the  accepted 
opinions  neurotics  are  only  exaggerations  of  the  normal 
and  that  the  modes  of  reaction  in  both  are  about  the 
same.  The  only  difference  lies  in  the  fact  that  one  can 
adjust  himself  to  his  environments  while  the  other  finds 
it  difficult  or  impossible  to  do  so.  If  one  should  ask 
wherein  these  difficulties  lie  the  experienced  psychoan- 
alyst would  readily  point  to  the  parents.  Indeed  the 
more  we  study  the  psychoneuroses  and  the  psychoses  the 
clearer  it  becomes  that  the  most  potent  factor  in  their 
determination  is  the  early  parental  influence.  That  our 
parents  should  play  a  leading  part  in  our  lives  is  so  obvious 

that  it  hardly  needs  further  discussion.     Thestrange  part 

329 


330  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

of  it,  however,  is  the  fact  that  these  relations  are  not 
as  amicable  or  peaceful  as  seems  at  first  sight.  What  I 
mean  to  say  is  that,  contrary  to  general  belief,  there  is 
usually  not  much  love  lost  between  parents  and  children 
and  that  especially  little  children  do  not  always  love 
their  parents  in  a  manner  generally  accepted.  On  the  con- 
trary they  often  show  a  marked  dislike  especially  for  one  of 
their  parents.  This  statement  may  sound  very  bold  and 
unfounded,  but  if  you  will  stop  to  think  for  a  moment 
you  will  soon  feel  that  it  strikes  a  familiar  note.  Obser- 
vation teaches  that  our  love  for  parents  is  not  innate  and 
spontaneous  and  that  it  follows  the  same  laws  as  that 
among  strangers.  Although  Freud  gave  us  the  true 
psychological  explanation  of  this  conception  the  principle 
of  it  must  have  been  known  from  time  immemorial.  His- 
tory and  every-day  life  demonstrate  it.  We  all  know 
the  fifth  commandment:  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother, 
that  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee.  Here  we  have  a  direct  order  to 
honor  our  parents  and  judging  by  the  other  command- 
ments and  by  our  modern  laws,  it  must  be  concluded 
that  to  neglect  parents  was  just  as  natural  in  the  Biblical 
times  as  were  those  impulses  against  which  command- 
ments beginning  with  "Thou  shalt  not"  had  to  be  imposed. 
For  it  is  a  fact  that  there  is  no  necessity  of  commanding 
the  individual  to  realize  his  impulses.  Left  to  himself  he 
would  constantly  try  to  realize  them,  and  civilization, 
so  called,  simply  consists  of  inhibitions  imposed  upon 
the  individual  by  religion  and  society.  The  more  one  can 
inhibit  his  primitive  impulses  the  more  cultured  he  is,  and 
savages  and  children  must  be  taught  inhibition  to  fit  them 


THE    OEDIPUS   COMPLEX  331 

for  society.  To  cite  Freud:  "A  progressive  renouncement 
of  constitutional  impulses,  the  activity  of  which  afford 
the  ego  primary  pleasure,  seems  to  be  one  of  the  basic 
principles  of  human  culture."^  In  brief,  observation  shows 
that  parents  are  loved  by  children  only  when  they  deserve  it, 
that  is  to  say,  when  they  do  not  interfere  with  the  child's 
desires  and  above  all  when  they  give  the  child  pleasure. 

When  we  enter  into  the  deeper  mental  mechanisms 
of  our  patients  and  investigate  their  love  lives,  we  usuall}'- 
find  that  the  little  boy  is  more  attached  to  his  mother  and 
the  little  girl  to  her  father.  In  other  words,  the  first 
woman  a  boy  loves  is  his  mother  who  forever  remains  as  a 
model  for  his  later  selections  of  women.  The  little  boy 
therefore  finds  his  father  in  the  way — he  is  his  rival.  When 
the  father  is  not  at  home  the  little  son  has  no  one  with 
whom  to  share  his  mother's  affection.  He  is  therefore 
angry  at,  and  jealous  of  his  father  and  often  wishes  him 
dead.  The  idea  of  death  does  not  however,  mean  to  the 
child  what  it  means  to  the  adult,  it  simply  means  to  be 
away.  One  of  my  patients  vividly  recalls  that  at  the  age 
of  four  years  he  asked  his  mother  whom  she  loved  more 
him  or  his  father,  and  when  she  said  that  she  loved  his 
father  more  he  became  furious  and  cried  for  hours.  These 
infantile  feelings  of  sex  which  later  develop  into  adult  sex 
lay  the  foundation  for  the  symptoms  appearing  in  the  later 
neurosis.  I  could  trace  directly  the  symptoms  of  the  cases 
that  I  have  analyzed  to  such  mechanisms.  In  normal 
persons  we  find  the  traces  of  this  early  love  in  the  dreams 
of  the  death  of  near  relatives  especially  the  father.^ 

The  sexual  feeling  for  the  mother  and  jealousy  of  the 
father  is  called  by  Freud  the  Oedipus  complex  because 


332  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

antiquity  has  furnished  us  with  legendary  material  to 
confirm  these  facts.  To  put  it  in  his  v/ords:  ''The  deep 
and  universal  effectiveness  of  these  legends  can  only  be 
explained  by  granting  a  similar  universal  applicability  to 
the  above-mentioned  assumption  in  infantile  psychology."^ 
The  legend  referred  to  is  the  drama  King  Oedipus  by 
Sophocles.  In  brief  it  reads  as  follows:  Laius,  the  king  of 
Thebes,  married  Jocasta.  After  years  of  childless  marriage 
Laius  visited  the  Delphian  Apollo  and  prayed  for  a  child. 
The  answer  of  the  god  was  as  follows:  "Your  prayer  has 
been  heard  and  a  son  will  be  given  to  you,  but  you  will  die 
at  his  hand,  for  Zeus  decided  to  fulfil  the  curse  of  Pelops 
whose  son  you  have  once  kidnapped."  In  spite  of  the 
warning  the  son  was  born,  but  fearing  the  fulfilment  of  the 
oracle,  the  child's  feet  were  pierced  and  tied,  and  delivered 
to  a  faithful  servant  to  be  exposed  in  the  desert.  The  ser- 
vant, however,  gave  the  child  to  a  Corinthian  shepherd 
who  took  it  to  his  master.  King  Polybus,  who,  being  child- 
less, adopted  it  and  called  it  Oedipus,  meaning  swollen  feet. 
When  the  boy  grew  up  into  manhood  he  became  uncertain 
of  his  own  origin  and  consulting  the  oracle  received  the 
following  answer:  "Beware  that  thou  shouldst  not  murder 
thy  father  and  marry  thy  mother."  In  order  to  avoid 
the  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy  Oedipus  at  once  left  Corinth 
and  accidentally  wandered  toward  Thebes.  On  the  way 
he  met  King  Laius  and  struck  him  dead  in  an  unexpected 
quarrel.  He  then  came  to  the  gates  of  Thebes  where  he 
solved  the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx,  driving  the  latter  to  suicide 
and  thus  freeing  the  city  from  a  great  scourge.  As  a  reward 
for  this  he  was  elected  king  and  presented  with  the  hand 
of  Jocasta,   his  mother.     He  reigned  in  peace  for  many 


THE    OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  333 

years  and  begot  two  sons  and  two  daughters  upon  his  un- 
known mother  until  a  plague  broke  out  which  caused  the 
Thebans  to  consult  the  oracle.  The  messengers  returned 
with  the  advice  that  the  plague  would  stop  as  soon  as  the 
murderer  of  King  Laius  would  be  driven  from  the  country. 
Sophocles  then  develops  the  play  in  a  psychoanalytic  man- 
ner until  the  true  relations  are  discovered,  namelj^  that 
Oedipus  killed  his  father  and  married  his  own  mother.  The 
drama  ends  by  Oedipus  blinding  himself  and  wandering 
away  into  voluntary  exile. 

In  his  characteristic  penetrating  waj^  Freud  draws 
many  interesting  conclusions  some  of  which  I  shall  mention. 
According  to  some  commentators,  Oedipus  Tyrannus  is  a 
tragedy  of  fate.  Its  tragic  effect  is  said  to  be  found  in  the 
opposition  between  the  powerful  will  of  the  gods  and  the 
futile  resistance  of  the  human  being  who  is  threatened  with 
destruction.  The  tragedy  teaches  resignation  to  the  will 
of  God  and  confession  of  one's  own  helplessness.  This 
tragedy  has  lately  been  revived  by  Max  Reinhardt  and 
had  a  long  and  successful  run  in  Berlin  and  London.  From 
what  we  have  read,  it  would  seem  that  it  moves  modern 
men  no  less  than  it  moved  the  contemporary  Greek.  In 
our  own  times,  however,  one  occasionally  witnesses  a  play 
dealing  with  the  incest  problem  which  is  as  tremendously 
effective  as  the  Greek  drama.  This  seems  to  indicate  that 
the  explanation  of  this  fact  cannot  lie  merely  in  the 
assumption  that  the  effect  of  the  Greek  tragedy  is  based  upon 
the  opposition  between  human  fate  and  human  will, 
but  is  to  be  sought  in  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  material 
by  which  the  opposition  is  shown.  There  must  be  some- 
thing in  us  which  is  prepared  to  recognize  the  compelling 


334  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

power  of  fate  in  Oedipus  while  we  justly  condemn  the 
situations  occurring  in  tragedies  of  later  date  as  arbi- 
trary inventions.  Witness,  e.g.,  the  storm  that  has  been 
produced  in  this  country  by  Synge's  Irish  play  "The 
Play-boy  of  the  Western  World,"  which  is  a  veiled  Oedipus 
complex.  Freud  states  that  there  must  be  some  uncon- 
scious factor  corresponding  to  this  inner  voice,  in  the  story 
of  king  Oedipus.  "His  fate  moves  us  only  for  the  reason 
that  it  might  have  been  ours,  for  the  oracle  has  put  the 
same  curse  upon  us  before  our  birth  as  upon  him.  Perhaps 
we  are  all  destined  to  direct  our  first  sexual  impulses  toward 
our  mothers  and  our  first  hatred  and  violent  wishes  toward 
our  father.  Our  dreams  convince  us  of  it.  King  Oedipus 
who  killed  his  father  and  married  his  mother,  is  nothing 
but  the  realized  wish  of  our  childhood.  But  more  for- 
tunate than  he  we  have  since  succeeded,  unless  we  have 
become  psychoneurotics,  in  withdrawing  our  sexual  im- 
pulses from  our  mothers  and  in  forgetting  our  jealousy  of 
our  fathers.  We  recoil  from  the  person  for  whom  this 
primitive  wish  has  been  fulfilled  with  all  the  force  of  the 
repression  which  these  wishes  have  suffered  within  us. 
By  his  analysis  showing  us  the  guilt  of  Oedipus  the  poet 
urges  us  to  recognize  our  own  inner  self,  in  which  these 
impulses,  even  if  repressed,  are  still  present." 

That  the  Oedipus  legend  originated  in  an  extremely 
old  dream  material  which  deals  with  the  painful  disturb- 
ance of  the  relation  toward  one's  own  parents  through  the 
first  impulses  of  sexuality,  is  unmistakably  shown  in  the 
very  text  of  Sophocles.  Jocasta,  comforting  Oedipus,  recalls 
to  him  the  dream  which  is  dreamed  by  so  many  people: 
"For,  says  she,  it  has  already  been  the  lot  of  many  men 


THE    OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  335 

in  dreams  to  think  themselves  partners  of  their  mother's 
bed.  But  he  passes  most  easily  through  life  to  whom  those 
circumstances  are  trifles."^  The  dream  of  having  sexual 
intercourse  with  one's  own  mother  occurred  at  that  time 
as  it  does  to-day  to  many  persons  who  tell  it  with  indigna- 
tion and  astonishment.  As  may  be  understood,  it  is  the 
key  to  the  tragedy  and  the  complement  to  the  dream  of 
the  death  of  the  father.  The  story  of  Oedipus  is  the  reac- 
tion of  the  imagination  to  these  two  typical  dreams  and, 
just  as  the  dream  when  occurring  to  an  adult  is  experienced 
with  feelings  of  resistance,  so  the  legend  must  contain  terror 
and  self  chastisement.  An  uncomprehending  secondary 
elaboration  tries  to  make  it  serve  such  theological  purposes 
as  mentioned  above. 

From  my  own  experience  I  can  fully  corroborate  Freud's 
claims.  I  have  on  record  hundreds  of  dreams  of  sexual  rela- 
tions with  one's  own  mother  given  to  me  by  many  patients. 
These  dreams  were  usually  quite  plain  and  there  was  very 
little  distortion  to  them.  About  half  of  these  dreamers 
reported  these  dreams  before  they  ever  heard  of  any  Oedipus 
complex,  while  the  other  half  told  about  them  after  I  had 
explained  the  mechanism.  They  all  assured  me  that  they 
were  perfectly  aware  of  these  dreams  and  to  my  question 
why  they  had  not  told  me  before  they  invariably  answered 
that  it  was  too  terrible  and  revolting  a  thing  to  tell,  and 
that  the  only  reason  why  they  told  them  to  me  was  because 
they  were  pleased  to  know  they  were  not  the  only  ones  having 
such  dreams.  I  can  say  the  same  of  many  women  who 
dreamed  that  they  had  sexual  relations  with  their  fathers. 
I  analyzed  Oedipus  dreams  in  which  only  the  father  or  the 
mother  was  masked.     Thus  one  of  mj'-  female  homosexuals 


336  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

told  me  that  the  only  erotic  dreams  in  which  a  man  played 
a  part  was  one  of  having  had  sexual  intercourse  with  one 
of  our  Governors,  but  on  associating  to  the  dream,  she 
told  me  that  she  was  accustomed  to  refer  to  her  father  as 
the  governor.  As  you  know  the  president,  governor  and 
mayor  in  dreams  usually  means  the  father.^ 

Most  of  the  Oedipus  dreams,  however,  usually  show  a 
symbolization  of  the  sexual  act  in  which  the  parents  may 
be  quite  plain.  One  of  my  patients  dreamed  that  he 
climbed  up  a  high  water  tower  on  a  revolving  staircase. 
On  reaching  midway  he  met  his  mother,  who  accompanied 
him  to  the  top.  The  climbing  became  more  and  more 
difficult.  He  had  to  hold  on  very  tightly  to  her  for  fear 
that  they  would  both  fall.  They  finally  reached  the  top 
in  a  very  exhausted  state  where  they  both  laid  down  in 
bed  together  for  a  long  rest.  This  patient  slept  with  his 
mother  until  he  was  eighteen  years  old  and,  from  his  own 
admission,  although  he  entertained  no  conscious  sexual 
feelings  toward  her,  he  wished  on  at  least  a  few  occasions 
that  he  could  marry  her.  To  those  acquainted  with  dream 
analysis  this  dream  needs  no  further  elucidation.^ 

A  man  of  thirty-five  years  reported  to  me  the  following 
dream:  "I  dreamt  that  I  was  in  bed  with  my  mother  and  as 
she  was  talking  aloud  I  told  her  to  he  quiet  as  I  was  afraid 
that  my  father  who  was  in  the  next  room  would  hear  us." 

This  patient  was  treated  for  psychosexual  impotence 
and  this  dream  came  after  unsuccessfully  attempting 
heterosexual  intercourse.  He  was  his  mother's  favorite 
and  owing  to  the  fact  that  his  father  was  a  psychopathic 
individual  who  abused  and  terrified  his  family  he  hated 
him  and  was  much  attached  to  his  mother.     Whenever 


THE   OEDIPUS   COMPLEX  337 

his  father  went  on  a  rampage  his  mother  would  lock  herself 
in  a  room  with  him,  and  they  often  lived  through  in  reality 
the  experience  described  in  the  dream.  This  was  also  the 
reason  for  his  sleeping  with  his  mother  up  to  the  age  of 
ten  years.  Disappointed  in  her  husband  she  lavished 
all  her  affection  on  her  son  who  supplied  her  with  the  love 
she  craved.  The  patient  stated  that  for  years  he  was  sub- 
ject to  nightmares  showing  almost  the  same  content  as 
the  above-mentioned  dream. 

To  understand  the  full  significance  of  this  dream  it  will 
be  necessary  to  review  a  few  psychological  facts. 

As  stated  above  we  are  all  destined  to  direct  our  first 
sexual  impulses  to  our  mothers.  The  first  woman  loved 
is  one's  own  mother.  It  is  the  mother  who  impresses  on 
the  mind  the  woman-image  which  remains  as  a  permanent 
standard  for  the  female  ideal.  Normally  a  repression 
takes  place  and  the  boy  gradually  projects  his  love  to 
strangers.  Investigation  shows  that  the  love  life  of  an 
individual  begins  at  a  very  early  age  and  as  this  progresses 
the  love  for  one's  mother  gradually  fades  from  conscious- 
ness. In  the  unconscious  it  remains  forever  and  acts 
as  a  constant  guide  in  the  future  selection  of  a  woman.^ 
Every  woman  in  compared  to  the  mother-image  and 
cceteris  paribus,  the  closer  the  resemblance  to  the  stronger 
the  woman  attracts  us.  This  may  shade  from  the  normal 
to  the  abnormal.    As  examples  I  can  cite  the  following  cases: 

A  very  cultured  man  was  attracted  only  by  very  stout 
servants.  No  other  type  of  woman  appealed  to  him. 
Analysis  showed  that  his  first  sexual  impulses  were  aroused 
by  a  servant  girl  of  that  type  who  took  the  place  of  his 
mother. 

22 


338  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

A  refined  married  woman  of  twenty-four  years  suffered 
from  psychosexual  frigidity,  but  was  sexually  excited 
whenever  she  saw  a  lame  man.  This  was  due  to  an  identi- 
fication with  her  mother  who  had  an  illicit  love  affair  with 
a  man  when  she  was  three  or  four  years  old.  Like  a  great 
many  grown-ups  her  mother  considered  her  little  girl  an 
unthinking  being  and  took  no  pains  to  conceal  anything 
from  her.  When  her  paramour  sustained  a  fracture  of  his 
leg  and  she  found  it  necessary  to  make  frequent  calls  on 
him  she  took  her  little  daughter  with  her  so  as  to  avoid 
gossip.  Although  what  she  witnessed  apparently  made  no 
impression  on  her  at  the  time  it  nevertheless  acted  as  a 
sexual  trauma  and  formed  an  association  between  sex 
and  lameness.  This  was  also  determined  by  the  fact  that 
at  a  later  age  this  lame  man  took  the  place  of  her  own 
father  by  marrying  her  widowed  mother. 

A  young  married  woman  who  is  dominated  by  a  verit- 
able prostitution  complex  carried  on  illicit  relations  with 
men  while  she  lived  with  her  husband.  Psychoanalysis 
showed  that  she  was  an  only  daughter  and  although  her 
father's  pet  she  saw  very  little  of  him  during  her  early 
childhood  as  his  affairs  took  him  away  from  home.  As 
far  as  her  memory  reached  she  recalled  witnessing  unholy 
loves  between  her  mother  and  "strange  men."  She  herself 
married  a  man  who  not  only  belongs  to  the  same  type  as  her 
father,  but  who  even  follows  her  father's  vocation.  She 
thus  identified  herself  with  her  mother  in  every  respect. 

Many  of  the  unhappy  love  affairs  and  marriages  are 
determined  by  such  unconscious  factors.  Thus  a  very 
cultured  woman  of  thirty-four  was  particularly  interested 
in  reforming  criminals  of  a  certain  type.     In  her  efforts  to  do 


THE    OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  339 

good  she  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man  recently  dis- 
charged from  prison  who  claimed  that  his  downfall  was 
due  to  drink.  This  acquaintanceship  ripened  into  friend- 
ship and  finally  this  ordinary  ex-convict  was  bold  enough  to 
propose  marriage.  Although  all  her  friends  and  relatives 
were  shocked  at  the  very  idea  of  her  marrying  this  man, 
she  could  only  reject  him  after  much  struggle  whereupon 
he  began  to  drink.  As  soon  as  she  heard  of  it  she  at  once 
assured  him  of  her  love  and  promised  to  marry  him. 
No  sooner  done  than  she  immediately  felt  that  she  made  a 
great  mistake,  that  she  really  did  not  love  the  man,  that  she 
was  only  interested  in  reforming  him.  She  broke  the 
engagement  but  as  soon  as  she  heard  that  he  was  again 
drinking  she  again  hastened  to  assure  him  that  she  would 
marry  him.  These  episodes  repeated  themselves  many 
times;  when  he  was  sober  she  could  never  think  of  him  as 
a  husband  but  as  soon  as  he  became  drunk  she  could 
hardly  resist  him.  When  her  friends  brought  her  to  me  I 
discovered  that  this  man  unconsciously  represented  her  own 
father  who  though  cultured  and  refined  died  a  drunkard. 

I  could  quote  many  more  cases,*  but  these  will  suffice 
to  show  the  unconscious  parental  influence.  Such  in- 
fluences are  found  in  every  person  and  although  they  are 
usually  quite  harmless  they  sometimes  act  perniciously. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  only  or  favorite  children  who 
are  overburdened  with  love.  They  are  not  allowed  to 
follow  the  different  stages  of  the  psychosexual  evolution 
and  their  libido  remains  fixed  on  the  mother.  ^°  The  result 
of  such  a  process  may  be  psychosexual   impotence.     By 

*  Most  of  the  cases  described  by  Mantegazzo  as  Idiogamists  prob- 
ably belong  to  this  category;  Zeitschrift  J.  Sexualwissenschaft.  p.  223. 


340  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

preventing  the  boy  from  projecting  his  love  to  strangers 
there  results  an  unconscious  incestuous  fixation  on  the 
mother  which  then  acts  as  an  inhibition  to  sexual  relations 
with  other  women. ^^ 

Let  us  return  to  the  above-mentioned  dream.  From 
what  we  know  of  dreams  we  may  say  that  those  which  are 
accompanied  by  fear  are  of  a  gross  sexual  nature.  The 
fear  as  was  said  above,  is  the  converted  libido  and  takes 
the  place  of  the  distortion  usually  found  in  other  dreams. 
In  other  words  the  dream  represents  a  repressed  wish  to 
sleep  with  his  mother  and  the  converted  libido  is  masked 
behind  the  fear  for  the  father.  His  father  was  furious 
whenever  he  found  him  sleeping  with  his  mother  and  our 
patient  dreaded  lest  he  should  be  detected  by  his  father. 
The  dream  repeats  the  same  state  of  mind  and  thus  gives 
us  the  key  to  his  neurosis.  By  sleeping  with  his  mother  to 
so  late  an  age  the  incestuous  feelings  were  kept  alive  and 
fixed  on  her,  but  as  he  grew  older  he  energetically  defended 
himself  against  them  and  finally  succeeded  in  repressing 
them  from  consciousness.  As  a  reaction  to  these  uncon- 
scious desires  he  became  extremely  moral  and  religious  and 
avoided  anything  sexual.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  he  at- 
tempted coitus  for  the  first  time  and  failed.  This  failure 
was  repeated  at  every  subsequent  attempt.  He  could  not 
accomplish  the  sexual  act  because  of  the  sexual  fixation  on 
the  mother.  Every  woman  unconsciously  recalled  his 
mother  and,  because  of  the  marked  repression  of  his 
incestuous  feelings,  coitus  was  naturally  impossible.  This 
was  also  constellated  by  his  unconscious  fear  of  his  father. 
The  patient  was  cured  of  his  impotence  as  soon  as  these 
mechanisms  were  laid  bare  and  explained  to  him. 


THE    OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  341 

Conscious  incestuous  feelings  and  experiences  in  adult 
life  are  not  as  rare  as  one  would  imagine.  This  subject 
has  been  discussed  by  Krafft-Ebing,  Bloch,  Havelock 
Ellis  and  others.  My  own  observations  in  this  regard 
taught  me  that  sexual  feelings  and  fancies  about  one's 
parents,  sisters  and  brothers  are  not  only  extremely  com- 
mon in  early  life  in  the  form  of  fancies  and  speculations 
about  sex,  but  that  they  also  often  exist  later.  Nor  must  it 
be  imagined  that  whenever  it  is  found  we  deal  with  defective 
persons.  The  individual  circumstances  must  always  be 
considered,  it  is  well  known  to  those  who  investigate  the 
psychosexual  development  that  the  sexual  fancies  indulged 
in  by  the  individual  at  the  pubescent  period  invariably 
refer  to  the  parent.  Havelock  Ellis^-  explains  the  abhor- 
rence of  incest  on  the  basis  of  familiarity.  He  states  that 
"The  normal  failure  of  the  pairing  instinct  to  manifest 
itself  in  the  case  of  brothers  and  sisters  or  of  boys  and  girls 
brought  up  together  from  infancy  is  a  merely  negative 
phenomenon  due  to  the  inevitable  absence  under  those 
circumstances  of  the  conditions  which  evoke  the  pairing 
impulse"  (p.  205).  "Passion  between  brothers  and  sisters 
is,  indeed,  by  no  means  so  rare  as  is  sometimes  supposed, 
and  it  may  be  very  strong,  but  it  is  usually  aroused  by  the 
aid  of  those  conditions  which  are  normally  required  for 
the  appearance  of  passion,  more  especiallj''  bj^  the  unfamil- 
iarity  caused  by  long  separation"  (p.  206).  I  agree  with 
Havelock  Ellis  as  far  as  he  goes,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
unfamiliarity  plays  only  a  subordinate  part  in  the  promo- 
tion of  certain  feelings  between  brothers  and  sisters. 
Unfamiliarity  does  not  necessarily  cause  attraction  between 
strangers  of  the  opposite  sexes,  but  long  separation,  espe- 


342  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

cially  when  occurring  since  early  life,  is  sure  to  produce  a 
strong  fascination  between  brothers  and  sisters.  This  is 
due  to  the  repressed  Oedipus  complex.  As  was  said  above, 
every  woman  that  later  comes  into  the  individual's  life 
is  unconsciously  compared  to  the  mother  image  in  our 
unconscious.  It  is  quite  obvious  that  the  sister  fits  into 
this  image  much  better  than  any  other  woman.  Who 
resembles  the  mother  more  than  the  daughter?  Besides, 
the  daughter  has  the  advantage  over  the  mother  of  youth 
and  beauty.  In  this  connection  I  would  like  to  give  an 
incident  related  to  me  by  a  colleague : 

He  came  to  this  country  from  Germany  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  years  having  left  at  home  a  sister  one  and  a  half 
years  his  junior.  Years  later  he  visited  an  exhibition 
in  the  Grand  Central  Palace  in  New  York  City  and  was 
strongly  fascinated  by  a  young  lady  he  saw  there.  The 
attraction  was  so  strong  that  he  lost  interest  in  the  exhibits 
and  followed  her  around  until  she  left  the  place.  Nor 
did  this  fascination  end  here.  He  told  me  that  for  months 
he  acted  like  a  man  in  love  and  for  years  he  measured 
every  woman  by  his  "Grand  Central  Girl."  He  returned 
to  his  native  city  after  having  been  eighteen  years  in 
America  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  his  younger  sister  the 
thought  flashed  through  his  mind,  "Here  is  my  Grand 
Central  Girl."  There  was,  indeed,  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance between  his  sister  and  the  unknown  young  woman 
with  whom  he  fell  in  love  in  America.  His  sister  was  the 
picture  of  his  mother. 

Moreover  in  real  life,  daughters  often  take  the 
place  of  their  mothers.  I  know  of  a  few  cases  where 
men  first  loved   the   mothers  and  then  switched  over  to 


THE    OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  343 

the  daughters.      The  daily  press  sometimes  reports  such 
cases.  ^' 

It  is  in  the  psychoses,  however,  that  one  sees  the  marked 
influence  of  the  Oedipus  complex.  Here  the  complex 
usually  comes  to  the  surface  in  the  form  of  symptoms, 
in  hallucinations  and  delusions,  and  the  analysis  can 
generally  trace  these  automatisms  to  early  repressed  feel- 
ings and  experiences.  The  following  cases  will  serve  as 
paradigms: 

Case  I. — V,  twenty-nine  years  old,  suflfers  from  the  paranoid  form 
of  dementia  prsecox.  He  hears  voices  accusing  him  of  having  had 
sexual  relations  with  his  mother.  Analysis  showed  that  as  a  boy  he 
entertained  sexual  fancies  about  his  mother.  He  often  looked 
through  the  keyhole  when  she  took  her  bath. 

Case  II. — Mrs.  F.,  a  married  woman  of  twenty-eight  years,  is  a 
paranoid  praecox.  For  more  than  a  year  she  has  been  laughing  and 
talking  to  herself  uttering  words  like  "clean,  never,  respectable,  not 
at  all,  none."  When  questioned  she  states  that  she  hears  voices  who 
accuse  her  of  having  been  "too  intimate  with  her  father  and  brother' 
and  the  words  uttered  are  only  answers  to  her  imaginary  accusers. 
They  read  as  follows:  I  am  clean.  I  never  did  such  terrible  things. 
I  am  respectable.  It  is  not  at  aU  true  that  I  had  sexual  relations 
with  my  father  and  brother." 

Case  III. — With  Dr.  H.  Valentine  Wildman  I  have  recently  com- 
mitted a  young  man  to  the  River  Crest  Sanatorium.  This  patient 
was  paranoid  and  his  main  delusions  were  fairly  well  systematized- 
They  were  directed  against  his  mother.  He  called  her  vile  names  and 
accused  her  of  having  made  sexual  advances  to  him.  The  following 
remarks  pointing  to  a  retrospective  falsification  contain  the  nucleus 
of  his  delusions:  "I  remember  when  I  was  a  kid,  she  (mother)  looked 
at  my  eyes  and  then  paced  the  floor  as  if  to  say  'you  are  for  me'  and 
since  then  she  wanted  to  make  me  her  lover."  The  history  of  the 
case  shows  the  typical  mechanisms  of  paranoia,  that  is,  there  was 
fixation  in  narcism  and  mother  love  (he  was  the  mother's  favorite), 
defence  against  homosexual  wish  phantasies,  then  failure  of  repres- 
sion, as  manifested  in  some  homosexual  experiences  and  delusions  of 
Ijersecution.i* 


344  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Now  it  may  be  asked  whether  children  show  by  their 
behavior  any  indication  of  the  Oedipus  complex  and 
whether  fathers  realize  consciously  that  their  sons  are 
their  rivals.  Anamneses  taken  from  normal  and  abnormal 
persons  answer  these  questions  in  the  affirmative.  Also 
the  works  of  Freud,  Bleuler,  Jung,  Putnam,  Ferenczi, 
Stekel,  Abraham,  Rank,  Jones,  ^*  and  others,  show  beyond 
any  doubt  that  this  is  the  case.  To  quote  Bleuler,  "After 
our  attention  had  been  called  to  it  we  found  this  Oedipus 
complex  more  and  more  frequently.  It  is  also  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  selection  of  lovers  among  normal  and 
abnormal  persons."^®  I  have  collected  many,  many  facts. 
Some  I  have  personally  observed  and  some  were  given  to 
me  by  reliable  colleagues  and  friends,  showing  that  beyond 
any  doubt  small  children  often  wish  to  replace  the  parent 
of  their  own  sex.  A  mother  told  me  that  her  bright  and 
healthy  little  boy  of  two  years  is  very  jealous  of  his  father, 
and  shows  it  on  every  occasion.  Seeing  her  talking  and  sit- 
ting next  to  her  husband  he  ran  to  her  and  pulled  her  away, 
exclaiming,  "No  Mami  talk  Daddy,  sit  down  talk  Baby." 
A  brilliant  little  boy  of  three  years,  hearing  that  he  will  sleep 
with  his  mother  because  his  father  was  going  to  stay  away 
for  the  night,  expressed  his  great  pleasure  to  his  mother,  and 
added,  "Let  us  play  that  we  are  married.  I'll  call  you 
Mary  and  you  call  me  John"  (names  of  parents).  Later, 
when  he  entered  his  mother's  sleeping  room,  he  said,  "Here 
comes  your  husband."  A  little  girl  of  three  and  one-half 
years  on  being  punished  by  her  mother  exclaimed  in  her 
childish  way,  "Go  away  to  Susie  (her  dead  sister),  I  can  be 
papa's  Mama  (meaning  his  wife,  as  her  father  calls  her 
mother  'mama')."     Another  little  girl  of  about  four  years 


THE   OEDIPUS    COMPLEX  345 

kissed  her  father  and  kept  on  repeating,  *'I  love  you  so 
much,  papa.  Let's  go  to  the  Bronx  and  never  come  home 
to  mama."  And  on  being  questioned  she  admitted  that 
she  did  not  love  her  mother. 

Some  parents  directly  encourage  incestuous  love  by 
sleeping  with  their  children  until  a  late  age  and  thus  stimu- 
late them  prematurely.  This  is  done  through  ignorance 
but  unconsciously  because  it  furnishes  an  outlet  to  the 
parent.  A  striking  example  of  this  kind  is  the  following: 
A  psychopathic  mother  consulted  me  about  her  eleven 
years  old  boy  "because  of  late  he  acted  almost  like  a  man" 
when  sleeping  with  her.  Investigation  showed  that  this 
boy  had  slept  with  his  mother  most  of  the  time  because  his 
father,  a  traveling  salesman,  was  away  from  home  from  four 
to  six  months  at  a  time.  The  mother  stated  that  she  was 
afraid  to  sleep  alone,  and  in  spite  of  her  observations,  which 
lead  her  to  consult  me,  she  refused  to  give  up  this  pleasure. 
When  I  tried  to  impress  her  that  the  boy  was  at  the  pubes- 
cent age  and  that  such  actions  must  be  expected  if  he 
slept  with  her  or  with  any  other  woman  she  accused  me  of 
being  an  alarmist. 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  parents  to  be  jealous  of  the  love 
shown  by  the  other  parent  for  the  child.  A  glaring  example 
of  this  kind  was  reported  to  me  by  a  patient  referred  to  me 
by  Dr.  Coriat  of  Boston.  Her  husband  was  a  very  promi- 
nent business  man,  but  somewhat  eccentric.  She  was 
very  much  attached  to  her  only  son  and  the  more  she  loved 
him  the  more  he  was  hated  by  the  father.  The  latter 
openly  expressed  his  jealousy  and  hatred  for  his  son  and 
treated  him  most  cruelly  whenever  he  could  do  so.     This 


346  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

feeling  continued  for  more  than  thirty  years  until  the  father 
died,  and  was  the  cause  of  much  unhappiness. 

In  his  study  on  incest  among  savages^^  Freud  showed 
that  the  incest  shyness  is  an  infantile  trait  and  in  striking 
accord  with  the  psychic  life  of  the  neurotic.  Psycho- 
analysis teaches  that  the  first  sexual  object  of  the  boy  is  of 
an  incestuous  prohibitive  nature  directed  against  the 
mother  or  sister;  it  also  shows  us  how  the  developing 
individual  frees  himself  from  these  feelings.  The  neurotic 
individual,  however,  regularly  presents  a  fragment  of 
psychic  infantilism.  He  is  either  unable  to  free  himself 
from  the  infantile  relations  of  psychosexuality,  or  he  has 
returned  to  them.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  the  incestuous 
fixations  of  the  libido  continue  to  play  a  great  part  in  his 
unconscious  psychic  life. 

References 

1.  Sammlung  kleine  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  Zweite  Folge. 

2.  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams.  The  Macmillan  Co., 
New  York,  and  George  Allen  Co.,  London. 

3.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  221. 

4.  L.  c,  p.  223. 

5.  Act  IV,  Sc.  3,  translated  by  Clark. 

6.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  246. 

7.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  246.     On  Stairway  Dreams. 

8.  Cf.  Chap.  XIV. 

9.  For  the  mechanism  of  such  traumas  see  Freud:  Selected  papers 
on  Hysteria,  p.  159. 

10.  Cf.  Chap.  XIV. 

11.  Ferenczi:  Analytische  Deutung  und  Behandlung  der  psycho- 
sexuellen  Impotenz  beim  Manne.  Psychiatrisch-neurologische  Woch- 
enschrift,  1908,  No.  35.  See  also  the  works  of  Stekel,  and  Steiner: 
Die  Psychischen  Storungen  der  Mannhchen  Potenz.  Deuticke,  Wien. 

12.  Sexual  Selection  in  Man,  p.  204. 


THE   OEDIPUS   COMPLEX  347 

13.  Those  who  are  interested  in  the  problem  may  read  an  excellent 
paper  on  the  subject  by  Freud:  Die  Inzestscheu  der  Wilden;  Imago, 
Heft  1.  Also  Totem  und  Taboo  (translated  by  A.  A.  Brill,  Moffat 
Yard  &  Co.,  New  York),  1918. 

14.  For  full  particulars  of  these  mechanisms,  see  Chap.  X. 

15.  See  especially,  "The  Oedpius  Complex  as  an  Explanation  of 
Hamlet's  Mystery,"  Amer.  Jour,  of  Psychology,  Jan.,  1910. 

16.  Dementia  Praecox  oder  Gruppe  der  Schizophrenien,  p.344  . 
Deuticke,  Leipzig  u.  Wien,  1911.  Also  his  Manual  of  Psychiatry,  a 
translation  of  which  is  in  preparation. 

17.  Freud:  L.  c. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  ONLY  OR  FAVORITE  CHILD  IN  ADULT  LIFE 

Fixation   on   early   parental   images;   the   psychology   of 
the  mother-in-law 

Very  little  attention  has  been  given  to  the  problem  of 
the  only  child,  and  the  little  literature  we  have  at  our 
disposal  deals  mainly  with  the  superficial  and  general 
aspects  of  the  question.  Neter,  who  has  written  an  excel- 
lent pamphlet  on  the  subject,^  gives  a  very  good  descrip- 
tion of  the  only  child's  attributes,  but  he  does  not  enter 
into  the  deeper  psychological  elements.  Moreover,  no 
attempt  has  been  made  outside  of  the  Freudian  schooP 
to  follow  those  children  into  adult  life  and  to  trace  the 
individual  influence  at  play  in  their  adjustment  to  environ- 
ments. This  can  be  readily  understood  when  we  remem- 
ber that  very  little  has  been  done  in  child  psychology  in 
general  and  that  only  few  psychologists  are  at  present 
occupying  themselves  with  the  subject. 

Stimulated  by  the  works  of  Freud^  and  Jung*  I  have 
investigated  the  subject  from  the  psychoanalytical  side 
and  shall  endeavor  to  present  some  of  the  results.  But 
before  proceeding  to  do  so  it  will  be  necessary  to  orient 
ourselves  on  some  of  the  psychological  principles  that 
form  a  part  of  the  discussion. 

In  his  famous  essay  Concerning  Human  Understanding, 

Locke  tells  us  that  the  child's  mind  is  essentially  a  tabula 

348 


THE    ONLY   OR    FAVORITE    CHILD    IN    ADULT   LIFE       349 

rasa,  a  blank  tablet  upon  which  nothing  is  written,  and 
that  all  knowledge  rests  on  experience.  Psychoanalysis 
fully  demonstrates  Locke's  empiricism,  and  confining 
ourselves  to  the  question  of  parental  influences  and  rela- 
tionships we  may  say  that  every  individual's  mind  pos- 
sesses certain  stereotype  plates  or  models,  as  it  were, 
which  are  the  result  of  mental  impressions  produced  by 
the  parents  during  childhood.  Thus  a  father  image^  and 
a  mother  image  remain  permanently  engraved  in  the  mind 
and  act  as  standards  for  estimation  of  men  and  women 
that  later  enter  into  this  person's  life.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  show  that  our  behavior  toward  our  fellow  beings  de- 
pends mostly  on  our  early  relations  to  our  parents.  In 
other  words  we  unconsciously  endeavor  to  fit  every 
stranger  into  one  of  our  latent  parental  images  and  our 
likes  and  dislikes  depend  in  a  great  measure  on  the  success 
or  failure  of  such  correlation.  Futher  investigation 
shows  that  children  do  not  always  love  their  parents  as  is 
commonly  supposed,  but  very  often  hate  one  of  them. 
The  first  woman  the  little  boy  loves  is  his  mother,  and 
the  first  man  the  little  girl  loves  is  her  father.  The  little 
boy  idolizes  his  mother  and  supplies  her  with  that  part  of 
poetic  love  which  she  no  longer  gets  from  her  husband. 
The  mother  calls  her  little  boy  sweetheart  and  tries  to 
realize  in  him  her  ideal  of  the  man.  The  same  thing  takes 
place  between  the  little  girl  and  her  father.  Normally, 
however,  these  parental  ideals  vanish  with  the  advancing 
age,  when  the  growing  child  begins  to  project  his  love  on 
strangers.  The  boy  then  no  longer  thinks  that  his  mother 
is  the  prettiest  and  loveliest  woman  in  the  world,  but  he 
evinces  an  interest  in  other  persons  of  the  opposite   sex. 


350  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  deflection  of  love  from  the  mother  may  also  be 
furthered  by  the  appearance  of  a  little  brother,  who  claims 
a  part  of  his  mother's  love  and  attention.  However, 
this  absence  of  the  mother  ideal  is  only  apparent.  It  is 
not  eliminated,  but  repressed  into  the  unconscious  and 
there  it  continues  to  exert  its  influence  throughout  the 
whole  life  of  the  individual.  Psychoanalysis  of  normal 
persons  shows  beyond  any  doubt  the  enormous  influence 
of  unconscious  parental  complexes.  It  explains  the 
important  mechanism  of  transference^  as  well  as  many  of 
the  peculiarities  of  the  love  life.^ 

Recently  I  was  consulted  by  a  young  girl  of  twenty-one 
years  who  was  said  to  have  become  nervous  as  a  result 
of  a  disagreement  with  her  mother.  She  was  in  love  with 
a  man  of  forty-six  years  to  whom  her  mother  strongly 
objected,  not  only  on  account  of  the  marked  difference  in 
their  ages,  but  because  the  man  was  considered  mentally 
abnormal.  During  our  conversation  she  remarked  that 
her  mother  had  always  been  in  her  way,  and  by  way  of 
explanation  she  stated  that  her  mother  was  jealous  of  her 
and  that  when  she  was  younger  she  hated  to  have  her 
mother  go  along  when  she  went  out  with  her  father.  "I 
always  looked  upon  her  as  a  stranger,"  she  said.  She 
idolized  her  father  who  is  her  ideal  in  every  respect, 
although  he  is  a  paranoiac  and  has  been  for  years  in  an 
insane  asylum.  She  surprised  me  when  she  told  me  that 
there  is  as  marked  a  difference  in  the  ages  of  her  father 
and  mother  as  there  is  in  her  own  and  her  fiance's  ages. 
Indeed,  all  the  features  of  the  case  unmistakably  pointed 
to  an  identification  with  her  mother  and  an  unconscious 
desire  to  get  her  father  ideal.     Such  cases  are  not  at  all 


THE    ONLY    OR    FAVORITE    CHILD   IN   ADULT   LIFE       351 

uncommon,  I  have  reported  some  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter and  could  cite  many  more. 

From  what  has  just  been  said  it  can  be  readily  under- 
stood that  such  parental  influences  may  often  be  strong 
enough  to  inhibit  materially  the  individual's  relations  to 
the  other  sex.  Thus,  too  much  and  prolonged  affection  on 
the  part  of  the  mother  is  apt  to  cause  an  undue  conscious 
or  unconscious  attachment  to  the  parents,  and  thus  pre- 
vent the  child  from  going  through  the  various  stages  of 
its  psychosexual  development.  In  this  connection  it  may 
be  repeated  that  the  sexual  impulse  of  childhood  is  auto- 
erotic  or  objectless.^  The  child  knows  no  other  sexual 
object  than  himself  and  gets  his  gratification  through  the 
erogenous  zones  of  his  own  body.  As  it  grows  older  we 
have  the  so-called  latency  period,  during  which  the  greater 
part  of  the  sexual  excitation  is  utilized  for  aims  other  than 
sexual,  viz.,  for  the  formation  of  social  feelings  and  the  future 
sexual  barriers.  Between  autoerotism  and  the  object  love 
there  is  an  intermediate  stage  which  has  been  designated  as 
narcism.  Freud  tells  us  that  every  stage  of  development  of 
the  psychosexual  life  offers  a  possibility  for  "  fixation  "  which 
may  result  in  a  type  of  character.  Thus  we  have  shown 
above  that  fixation  in  narcism  may  cause  paranoia^  or 
homosexuality,  and  that  fixation  in  autoerotism  may  lay  the 
foundation  for  dementia  prsecox.  By  giving  the  child  too 
much  love,  mothers  often  prolong  or  cause  a  fixation  in  the 
various  stages  mentioned.  This  naturally  occurs  very  often 
in  only  children,  who,  having  no  one  with  whom  to  share 
their  parents'  affection,  are  overburdened  with  love.  The 
same  is  true  of  favorite  children  who  are  subjected  to 
the  same  conditions  as  only  children  during  the  impression- 


352  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

able  period  of  their  existence.  Since  the  fall  of  1908  I  have 
examined  hundreds  of  only  or  favorite  children,  and  my 
findings  may  be  divided  into  (a)  general  and  (6)  specific. 

(a)  Whether  burdened  by  heredity  or  not  the  adult  only 
child  usually  shows  one  prominent  feature,  namely,  he  is  a 
very  poor  competitor  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Hav- 
ing been  carefully  reared  and  constantly  watched  by  his 
loving  mother,  he  remains  forever  "mama's  boy."  He  is 
devoid  of  those  qualities  which  characterize  the  real  boy. 
He  lacks  independence,  self-confidence  and  the  practical 
skill  which  the  average  boy  acquires  through  competition 
with  other  boys. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  only  boy  constantly  asso- 
ciates with  grown-ups  he  is  usually  precocious  even  in 
childhood,  and  as  he  grows  older  he  finds  it  very  hard  to 
associate  with  persons  of  his  own  age.  Real  friendships 
begin  very  early  in  life.  I  know  an  only  boy  of  nineteen 
years  who  has  not  a  single  friend.  He  is  practically  asocial. 
He  wishes  only  to  associate  with  persons  much  older  than 
himself  and  cannot  adapt  himself  to  the  society  of  young 
people  because  they  "bore"  him.  Some  time  ago  I  was 
consulted  about  another  only  boy,  seven  years  old,  because, 
as  his  mother  put  it,  he  did  not  get  along  with  other  children 
and  was  a  real  blas^.  He  was  not  interested  in  anything. 
Toys,  pets,  books,  etc.,  that  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
delight  the  hearts  of  a  dozen  children  had  absolutely  no 
charm  for  him.  He  was  in  constant  need  of  new  excite- 
ments and  as  they  could  not  be  supplied  quickly  enough  he 
was  unhappy  and  morose. 

The  only  child  is  usually  spoiled  and  coddled  because 
the  parents  gratify  all  his  whims  and  have  not  the  heart 


THE    ONLY    OR    FAVORITE    CHILD   IN   ADULT   LIFE       353 

to  be  severe  with  or  punish  him  when  necessary.  This 
has  its  evil  ^consequences  in  adult  life,  for  the  slightest 
depreciation,  hardly  noticeable  by  the  average  person,  is 
enough  to  throw  him  into  a  fit  of  depression  and  rage  last- 
ing for  days  and  even  for  weeks.  An  only  daughter 
attempted  suicide  because  her  best  friend  received  more 
attention  than  she  at  a  social  gathering. 

It  is  due  to  the  undivided  attention  and  abnormal  love 
that  the  only  child  gets  from  his  parents  that  he  develops 
into  a  confirmed  egotist.  He  is  never  neglected  in  favor 
of  sisters  and  brothers.  He  is  the  sole  ruler  of  the  house- 
hold and  his  praises  are  constantly  sung.  It  is,  therefore, 
no  wonder  that  the  only  child  becomes  vain  and  one-sided 
and  develops  an  exaggerated  opinion  of  himself.  In  later 
life  he  is  extremely  conceited,  jealous  and  envious.  He 
begrudges  the  happiness  of  friends  and  acquaintances  and 
he  is  therefore  shunned  and  disliked.*  A  favorite  son, 
a  bachelor  of  sixty-two  years  who  was  a  wealthy  retired 
merchant,  told  me  that  whenever  there  was  a  rise  in  the 
market  he  suffered  from  severe  depression  and  fits  of  envy, 
simply  because  he  knew  that  some  of  his  friends  would 
make  money.  He  himself  had  no  personal  interest  in  the 
market.  Such  qualities  are  surely  not  conducive  to 
happiness,  and  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  almost  all 
such  children  are  selfish,  unhappy  and  morose. 

(6)  The  specific  findings  are  of  still  greater  interest. 
Of  400  cases  observed  years  ago  there  were  172  men  and  228 
women.  Their  ages  ranged  from  eighteen  to  sixty-eight 
years.     The    morbid    manifestations     were    as    follows: 

*  A  typical  example  is  Joseph  of  the  Bible,  having  been  his  mother's 
oiily  son  (Rachel  died  during  the  birth  of  Benjamin)  and  his  father's 
favorite,  he  was  despised  and  hated  by  his  half-brothers. 

23 


354  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  predominant  feature  in  about  36  per  cent,  of  my 
cases  was  the  abnormal  sex  life.  Most  of  them  sought 
treatment  for  homosexuality,  psychic  impotence  (men)  and 
sexual  anesthesia  (women) ;  there  were  also  some  exhibition- 
ists, voyeurs,  sadists  and  masochists.  About  18  per  cent, 
suffered  from  the  various  types  of  dementia  praecox.  The 
rest  represented  the  different  forms  of  the  psychoneuroses. 
I  was  unable  to  tabulate  the  hundreds  of  cases  that  I 
have  observed  since  I  had  published  these  cases  but  I  am 
quite  certain  that  the  percentages  are  about  the  same. 

No  statistical  conclusions  should  be  drawn  from  these 
figures  as  most  of  these  patients  came,or  were  sent  to  me  for 
treatment  because  they  suffered  from  psychoneuroses 
or  from  the  other  maladies  enumerated  above.  They 
show,  however,  the  marked  prevalence  of  only  or  favorite 
children  in  these  classes.  Bearing  in  mind  our  psycho- 
analytic knowledge  of  early  impressions  this  is  not  at  all 
surprising.  As  shown  above,  the  foundations  for  one's  later 
erotic  life  are  mostly  laid  by  the  parent  of  the  opposite  sex. 
It  primarily  depends  on  the  mother  whether  the  son  will 
pass  through  normally  the  various  stages  of  psychosexual 
evolution.  If  for  some  reason  she  prevents  him  from 
giving  up  his  infantile  erotic  activities  by  encouraging  him 
to  look  for  his  love  outlets  in  her  only,  he  will  perforce 
remain  sexually  speaking  infantile,  and  hence  abnormal. 
It  is  quite  obvious  that  abnormal  love  in  early  life  hinders 
the  normal  sexual  evolution.  It  either  keeps  alive  or  later 
revives  some  of  the  early  sexual  activities.  The  boy  can- 
not transfer  his  libido  on  other  women  because  his  mother 
stands  in  his  way.  As  a  rule  this  is  accomplished  quite 
innocently  under  the  guise  of  maternal  care.     Such  mothers 


THE    ONLY    (^    FAVORITE    CHILD    IN   ADULT   LIFE       355 

discourage  social  intercourse  with  the  opposite  sex  because 
consciously  they  wish  to  preserve  their  son's  purity,  uncon- 
sciously they  are  extremely  jealous  of  any  other  woman. 
This  may  also  be  conscious.  A  number  of  my  homosexual 
patients  told  me  that  their  mothers  were  actually  jealous 
of  every  woman  with  whom  they  chanced  to  come  in 
contact  and  behaved  exactly  as  if  they  were  confronted  with 
a  rival.  No  one  is  good  enough  for  such  children.  At 
least  that  is  what  the  parents  think.  This,  by  the  way, 
explains  the  difficulties  with  mothers-in-law.  They  uncon- 
sciously want  their  sons  for  themselves  and  are  jealous 
of  every  other  woman.  It  is  a  sex  jealousy  pure  and 
simple.*     The  majority  of  only  children  do  not  marry  at 

*  The  deeper  reasons,  however,  lying  at  the  basis  of  the  hostility 
between  the  proverbial  mother-in-law  and  her  son-in-law  are  explained 
by  Freud  in  his  Totem  und  Taboo. i"  He  first  shows  that  among 
savages  the  world  over  there  exist  very  stringent  laws  against  any 
familiarity  with  one's  mother-in-law.  The  son-in-law  and  mother- 
in-law  are  forced  by  the  tribal  laws  to  shun  each  other.  They  must 
run  away  or  hide  when  they  meet  by  chance.  In  civilized  com- 
munities where,  to  the  regret  of  many,  there  are  no  such  laws,  it  is 
extremely  common  to  find  very  strained,  not  to  say  hostile,  feelings 
between  mother-in-law  and  son-in-law.  Freud  uses  the  term  coined  by 
Bleuler  to  describe  the  feeling  between  mother-in-law  and  son. 
He  thinlcs  that  the  relation  between  them  may  be  designated  as 
'•ambivalent,"  i.  e.,  it  is  made  up  of  both  affectionate  and  hostile 
feelings.  Some  of  these  feelings  are  quite  clear.  Thus,  the  mother- 
in-law  dislikes  to  relinquish  her  daughter  to  a  stranger  whom  she 
suspects,  and  shows  a  tendency  to  assume  a  domineering  attitude 
to  which  she  became  accustomed  in  her  own  home.  The  son-in-law, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  determined  to  resent  any  subordination  on  the 
part  of  his  wife  to  the  will  of  any  stranger.  He  is  jealous  of  all 
persons  who  once  possessed  his  wife's  love  and,  what  is  more,  he  dis- 
likes to  have  his  illusion  of  sexual  overestimation  disturbed.  Such 
disturbance  mostly  emanates  from  the  mother-in-law,  who  reminds 


356  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

all  or  they  frequently  marry  some  near  relative  whom  they 
unconsciously  identify  with  their  parent  image.  ^^  The 
probable  average  of  my  patients'  ages  was  thirty-four  years, 
but  only  ninety-three  out  of  the  400  had  been  married. 
Most  of  them  remained  old  maids  and  bachelors. 

There  are  many  other  forms  of  sexual  maladjustments 
which  one  finds  in  such  children  but  as  they  are  not  neces- 
sarily peculiar  to  only  or  favorite  children  there  is  no  need 
to  dwell  on  them.     I  merely  repeat  that  parental  influences  . 
play  a  great  part  in  both  normal  and  neurotic  individuals,  \ 
but  whereas  the  normal  person  gets  away  at  least  consci-    \ 
ously  from  these  dominations  the  neurotic  remains  anchored     \ 
and  succeeds  only  partially  in  freeing  himself  from  them,      j 
This  fixation  is  mainly  responsible  for  psychic  impotence,      I 
frigidity  in  women,  and  homosexuality , ^^  and  its  general    / 
influences  can  always  be  found  in  every  psychoneurotic.^'   / 

him  of  his  wife  because  of  many  common  features  between  them,  but,' 
who  lacks  all  the  attractions  of  youth,  beauty  and  psychic  freshenss 
which  give  value  to  his  wife. 

Added  to  that  there  are  unconscious  motives.  Whenever  the 
psychosexual  needs  of  the  woman  are  to  be  gratified  in  marriage  or 
in  family  life  she  is  always  threatened  by  the  danger  of  lack  of  grati- 
fication through  a  premature  cessation  of  the  marital  relations  or 
through  the  uneventfulness  of  her  emotional  life.  The  ageing  mother 
protects  herself  against  it  by  living,  as  it  were,  in  her  children.  It  is 
said  that  one  remains  young  with  one's  children.  This  is  really  the 
most  valuable  psychic  gain  accruing  to  the  parents  from  their  children. 
This  living  through  the  daughter  proceeds  in  the  mother  to  an  extent 
that  she  falls  in  love  with  the  man  her  daughter  loves,  which,  in 
pronounced  cases,  leads  to  severe  forms  of  neurotic  disturbance 
brought  on  by  the  violent  psychic  conflicts.  A  tendency  to  love  her 
son-in-law  is  frequently  observed  in  the  mother-in-law  and  either 
this  feeling  alone  or  its  contrary  emotion  alUes  itself  to  the  tumultuous 
struggling  forces  in  her  psyche.     Quite  often  the  son-in-law  faces  the 


THE    ONLY    OR    FAVORITE    CHILD    IN    ADULT   LIFE       357 

I  know  an  old  bachelor  of  forty-five  years,  an  only  son,  who 
slept  with  his  mother  until  she  died.  He  is  a  good  business 
man  and  is  said  to  be  normal  in  every  other  respect.  I 
have  treated  an  old  maid,  a  favorite  daughter,  who  lost 
her  father  three  years  ago.  She  still  wears  black  and 
cries  bitterly  at  any  allusion  to  her  father.  Her  answer 
to  my  question  as  to  why  she  still  wore  mourning  was 
typical  of  many  similar  expressions  that  one  hears  from 
such  patients.  "  Why  shouldn't  I  ?  No  one  ever  had  such 
a  kind,  generous  and  self-sacrificing  father.  There  is  not 
another  man  like  him  in  this  world.  O!  how  I  love  this 
man,  etc."  This  may  sound  like  pure  filial  love,  but 
having  analyzed  her,   I  have  definitely  ascertained  that 

hostile,  sadistic  components  of  the  emotions  of  love  which  only  serve 
to  better  repress  the  prohibited  affectionate  feelings. 

The  relations  of  the  man  to  his  mother-in-law  are  compUcated  by 
similar  feelings  which  flow,  however,  from  another  source.  As  a  rule 
the  road  of  object  selection  leading  to  the  love  object  is  followed  by 
the  man  over  the  images  of  his  mother  or  perhaps  his  sister.  The 
deflection  of  his  first  love  from  these  beloved  persons  of  his  childhood 
is  effected  by  the  incest  barriers  in  order  that  he  should  attain  in  a 
stranger  this  prototype.  In  place  of  his  mother  or  the  mother  of  his 
sister  he  is  now  confronted  by  the  mother-in-law.  This  gives  rise  to 
a  tendency  to  return  to  the  prehistoric  selection  which  is  rapidly 
repressed.  His  incest  shyness  demands  that  he  should  not  be 
reminded  of  the  geneology  of  his  love  selection.  The  rejection  is 
facilitated  by  the  actuality  of  the  mother-in-law  whom  he  did  not 
know  from  the  beginning  of  his  existence  and  hence,  unUke  his 
mother's,  her  image  does  not  remain  unchanged  in  his  unconscious. 
A  special  addition  of  attractiveness  and  repulsion  to  the  emotional 
mixture  allows  the  conjecture  that  the  mother-in-law  really  repre- 
sents an  incestuous  temptation  for  the  son-in-law.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  not  rare  for  a  man  to  fall  in  love  first  with  his  future  mother- 
in-law  before  turning  his  affection  to  her  daughter. 


358  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

she  unconsciously  loved  her  father  as  any  woman  loves  a 
stranger.  We  can  readily  see  why  such  persons  cannot 
marry.  This  patient  characteristically  expressed  it  when 
she  said:  "If  I  could  find  a  man  like  my  father  I  would 
marry." 

Judging  from  what  was  said  about  only  or  favorite 
children  it  would  naturally  be  best  for  the  individual  as  well 
as  the  race  that  there  should  be  no  only  children.  However, 
when  this  cannot  be  avoided  by  virtue  of  ill  health  or  death 
of  one  of  the  parents  the  child  need  not  necessarily  become  a 
neurotic  and  belong  to  any  of  the  categories  mentioned 
above.     It  all  depends  upon  its  subsequent  bringing  up. 

When  we  read  the  history  of  only  children  we  find  that 
only  those  who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  manner 
described  develop  into  abnormal  beings,  those  who  are  not 
pampered  and  coddled  have  the  same  chances  as  other 
children.  As  classical  examples  we  may  mention  Nero 
and  Confucius,  the  former  was  a  spoiled  only  child,  while 
the  latter  was  a  well-bred  only  child.  For  a  number  of 
years  I  have  been  investigating  only  children  from  history 
and  as  far  as  I  have  gone  I  could  mention  quite  a  number 
of  only  children  belonging  to  both  types.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  if  properly  brought  up  the  only  child  actually  possesses 
some  attributes  which  tend  towards  leadership.  Some  of 
the  greatest  leaders  in  all  walks  of  life  were  only  children 
in  the  absolute  or  relative  sense  (only  child  for  first  few 
years).  An  only  child  should  be  made  to  associate  with 
other  children  who  will  soon  teach  him  that  he  is  not 
the  only  one  in  the  world.  This  should  begin  at  a  very 
early  age.  I  have  seen  many  "nervous  and  wild"  only 
children  who  were  completely  changed  after  a  few  weeks' 


THE   ONLY   OR   FAVORITE   CHILD   IN   ADULT  LIFE      359 

attendance  in  a  kindergarten.  This  form  of  therapy  is 
effective  only  when  applied  very  early  in  life  where  the 
parents  are  aware  that  only  childism  is  a  bad  disease.  But 
even  in  such  cases  the  only  child  traits  can  always  be 
recognized.  But  what  is  still  more  important  is  that  only 
children  should  not  be  gorged  with  parental  love.  Parents 
should  take  care  that  such  children  should  not  develop  an 
exaggerated  idea  of  their  own  personality  and  think  that 
they  are  superior  to  everybody.  For  individuals  imbued 
with  such  paranoid  ideas  are  bound  to  come  into  conflict 
with  their  fellowmen.  What  is  true  of  the  individual  may 
also  be  true  of  a  race,  and  history  furnishes  us  with  a  very 
nice  example. 

I  refer  to  the  only  and  favorite  chUd  of  Jehovah,  the 
Jewish  race.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  the  Jews  are  the 
"chosen  people,"  "the  only  son,"  and  even  "the  first- 
born." That  the  Jews  have  displayed  all  the  attributes  of 
the  only  or  favorite  child  need  hardly  be  mentioned. 
From  the  Bible  we  learn  that  they  were  stiff-necked,  spoiled 
and  overbearing,  and  considered  themselves  superior 
to  every  other  nation.  Characteristics  of  such  nature 
have  been  attributed  to  them  by  almost  all  writers  of 
ancient  and  modern  times,  and  although  some  are  gross 
exaggerations  it  must  nevertheless  be  admitted  that  they 
are  essentially  correct  in  reference  to  the  Hebrews  of  an- 
tiquity and  the  modern  orthodox  European  Jews.  Still 
it  is  gratifying  to  note  that  this  no  longer  holds  true  of  the 
great  bulk  of  western  Jews  who  have  enjoyed  a  couple  of 
generations  of  freedom.  The  explanation  of  this  change 
is  given  by  Dr.  M.  Fishberg^^  in  his  very  interesting  book. 
He    plainly    shows    that    "Judaism    has    been    preserved 


360  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

throughout  the  long  years  of  Israel's  dispersion  by  two 
factors:  its  separative  ritualism,  which  prevented  close 
and  intimate  contact  with  non-Jews,  and  the  iron  laws  of 
Christian  theocracies  of  Europe  which  encouraged  and 
enforced  isolation."  In  other  words,  as  long  as  the  Jew 
has  been  imbued  with  the  racial  pride  of  belonging  to  the 
"chosen  people"  and  has  been  offering  daily  prayers  to 
Jehovah  because  he  was  not  created  a  gentile,  he  per- 
force remained  exclusive  and  therefore  was  suspected  and 
disliked  by  his  non-Jewish  neighbors.  When  we  study 
the  history  of  the  Jews  we  find  that  their  enforced  isolation 
was  the  result  of  an  early,  voluntary  clannish  exclusive- 
ness.  This  shows  the  striking  analogy  to  the  only  boy 
who  at  first  refuses  to  associate  with  others  because  he 
believes  himself  superior  to  everybody  else,  and  who  is 
later  excluded  from  social  relations  because  he  is  misunder- 
stood and  disliked.  Dr.  Fishberg  also  tells  us  that  as  soon 
as  the  barriers  are  removed  the  Jews  readily  assimilate  and 
all  former  prejudices  disappear.  The  only  boy,  too, 
loses  his  identity  as  soon  as  he  realizes  that  he  is  no  better 
than  his  fellow  beings. 

More  could  be  said  in  reference  to  this  problem  but  I 
must  reserve  that  for  the  future.  Perhaps  the  most  impor- 
tant thing  to  remember  is,  that  regardless  of  heredity, 
environments  here  definitely  stamp  the  individual  into  a 
certain  type.  For  no  matter  how  careful  parents  are  to 
eliminate  the  only  child  attributes,  the  fact  remains  that 
any  average  child  who  is  alone  for  the  first  few  years  of 
its  existence  always  shows  the  only  child  traits.  I  do  not 
find  it  difficult  to  pick  out  from  among  the  people  I  meet, 
former  only  or  favorite  children,  even  if  they  have  made 


THE    ONLY   OR    FAVORITE    CHILD   IN   ADULT   LIFE       361 

a  good  adjustment.     To  be  sure,  it  is  quite  simple  to  diag- 
nose the  Aaron  Burr  type  of  only  children. 

Another  point  to  remember  is  that  the  psychosexual  life 
is  a  part  of  every  individual  and  that  the  infantile  part  of  it 
is  the  foundation  of  the  adult  sex  life.  Our  civilization, 
which  is  based  on  renunciation,  demands  that  much  of 
the  sex  impulse  should  be  sublimated  to  other  aims  and  that 
the  rest  of  it  should  be  controlled,  that  is  to  say,  that  its 
actual  biological  role  must  be  deferred  for  many  years. 
When  parents  who  are  ignorant  of  these  basic  facts  stimu- 
late the  child  with  much  love,  because  the  child  ofifers  them 
a  love  outlet,  they  not  only  spoil  the  normal  mental  evolu- 
tion by  interfering  with  the  latency  period,  but  the  prema- 
ture stimulation  makes  the  child  incapable  of  controlling 
his  sex  Hfe  when  control  is  absolutely  necessary.  Such 
parents  fail  to  see  that  love  md  sex  are  one  and  the  same 
thing,  and  that  the  litt^^  boy  who  is  gorged  with  love  will 
continually  need  more  and  more  of  it  and  that  mere  kisses 
will  not  suffice  at  the  prepubescent  and  pubescent  age. 
Sex  must  and  can  only  be  controlled  and  if  the  parents  are 
shocked  at  the  later  manifestation  of  love  and  try  to  exter- 
minate the  whole  impulse  they  reopen  or  keep  alive  some 
of  the  components  and  partial  impulses  of  sex  that  are  part 
of  the  infantile  sexuality,  and  thus  usually  making  neurotics, 
perverts  or  inverts. 

References 

1.  Das  einzige  Kind.     Gmelin,  Miinchen. 

2.  A  paper  was  read  on  this  subject  by  Drs.  Sadger  and  Friedjung 
before  the  Vienna  Psychoanalytic  Society,  October  5,  1910. 

3.  Analyse  der  Phobie  eines  5  Jahrigen  Knaben.  Jahrbuch  f. 
Psychoanalyse,  Vol.  I. 


362  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

4.  Experiences  Concerning  the  Psychic  Life  of  the  Child.  Trans- 
lated by  A.  A.  Brill,  Am.  Jour,  of  Psychology,    April,  1910. 

5.  Jung:  Symbole  und  Wandlungen  der  Libido.  Jahrbuch  f. 
Psychoanalyse,  Vol.  II. 

6.  Freud:  Zur  Dynamik  der  Uebertragung.  Zentralblatt  f.  Psycho- 
analyse, II;  and  Brill:  A  Few  Remarks  on  the  Technique  of  Psycho- 
analysis, Medical  Review  of  Reviews,  April,  1912. 

7.  Jung:  Die  Bedeutung  des  Vaters  fiir  das  Schicksal  des  Einzelnen. 
Jahrbuch  fiir  Psychoanalyse,  Vol.  I. 

8.  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex.  Translated  by 
A.  A.  Brill. 

9.  C/.  Chap.  X. 

10.  Freud:  Totem  and  Taboo,  translated  by  A.  A.  Brill,  MoflBat 
Yard  &  Co.,  New  York. 

11.  Abraham:  Die  Stellung  der  Verwandtenehe  in  der  Psychologic 
der  Neurosen.     Jahrbuch  fiir  Psychoanalyse,  Vol.  I. 

12.  Freud:  L.  c;  also  Ferenczi:  Analytische  Deutung  der  psycho- 
sexuellen  Impotenz  beim  Manne.  Psychiatr.  Neurolog.  Wochen- 
schrift,  1908,  and  the  works  of  Stekel,  Sadger  and  Steiner. 

13.  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  224. 

14.  The  Jews,  A  Study  of  Race  and  Environment.  Scribner's 
Pub.  Co.  For  further  details  concerning  this  subject  see  my  paper. 
The  Adjustment  of  the  Jew  to  the  American  Environment,  Mental 
Hygiene,  April,  1918. 


CHAPTER  XV 

FAIRY  TALES  AS  A  DETERMINANT   OF  DREAMS 

AND  NEUROTIC  SYMPTOMS.     THEIR  RELATION 

TO  ACTIVE  AND  PASSIVE  ALGOLAGNIA 

That  fairy  tales  should  play  a  part  in  the  determination 
of  character,  dreams  and  neurotic  symptoms  is  not  at  all 
surprising  when  one  thinks  of  their  very  intimate  relation 
to  child  life.  It  is  well  known  that  from  the  very  dawn  of 
civilization  no  child  ever  grew  up  without  hearing  fairy  tales; 
they  are  found  universally  among  all  nations,  savage  or 
enlightened,  and  it  is,  therefore,  fair  to  assume  that  fairy 
tales  play  no  mean  part  in  the  moulding  of  the  young  mind. 

It  is  but  natural  that  those  who  recognize  the  importance 
of  early  impressions  as  an  influence  on  the  future  develop- 
ment of  morbid  states  should  be  more  interested  in  fairy 
tales  than  those  who  ignore  the  past  in  the  examination  and 
treatment  of  neurotic  symptoms.  Yet  it  is  a  strange  fact 
that  with  few  exceptions  no  psychoanalyst  has  written  any- 
thing about  the  direct  influence  of  fairy  tales  on  dreams  and 
neurotic  symptoms.  To  be  sure,  much  has  been  published 
about  fairy  tales,  myths  and  folk-lore,^  showing  their 
analogy  to  dreams  and  to  the  symbolization  of  praecoxes, 
but  it  was  left  to  Prof.  Freud  to  report  some  dreams  in  which 
fairy  tales  played  a  direct  part.^  I  was  pleased,  but  not  sur- 
prised, to  read  this  interesting  contribution,  as  for  years 
I  have  been  gathering  material  showing  these  relations  not 
only  to  dreams,  but  to  neurotic  symptoms,  and  I  shall  here 

report  some  of  my  findings. 

363 


364  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

An  unmarried  woman  of  twenty-nine  years  related  the 
following  dream: 

/  was  in  a  crowd,  and  when  I  got  away  I  was  followed  by  a 
very  hideous-looking  man.  I  ran  and  he  followed  me,  and 
finally  caught  me.  He  first  said  he  would  choke  me,  but  then 
decided  to  cut  my  head  off  with  a  big  carving  knife.  I  could 
see  the  blood  flowing  (terrible  fright). 

Analysis:  The  dreamer  is  somewhat  masochistic,  and 
like  most  unmarried  women  of  her  age  she  is  very  anxious 
to  get  a  husband.  The  evening  before  this  dream  she 
danced  with  a  man  concerning  whom  she  had  many  intimate 
fancies.  On  going  home  she  saw  a  disgusting-looking 
drunkard.  She  often  dreams  of  drunkards,  for  whom  she 
entertains  a  particular  repugnance.  Investigation  brought 
out  the  fact  that  years  before  a  man  made  love  to  her  while 
under  the  influence  of  liquor,  and,  owing  to  his  mental  state, 
he  was  quite  brutal  in  his  advances.  This  was  the  last  man 
who  made  love  to  her. 

The  cutting  off  of  her  head  recalled  Bluebeard,  who  was 
"frightful  looking  on  account  of  his  blue  beard."  This 
story  was  read  to  her  long  before  she  herself  could  read,  and 
it  produced  a  terrible  impression  on  her.  As  she  grew  older 
Bluebeard  was  the  subject  of  her  night-terrors,  and  at 
puberty  she  often  had  dreams  similar  to  the  one  just 
described.  The  dream  is  a  coitus  wish,  and  shows  the 
mechanism  of  displacement  from  below  to  above.^ 

Another  young  woman  of  twenty-seven  years  dreamed 
as  follows : 

/  was  with  C.  (a  little  niece)  in  the  menagerie,  and  all  the 
wild  animals  came  out  of  the  cages  at  the  same  time.  I  was 
terribly  frightened,  as  I  felt  myself  responsible  for  C.'s  safety. 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT   OF   DREAMS         365 

and  I  knew  that  I  was  powerless  to  protect  her.  I  held  her 
tightly.  From  all  sides  came  lions,  tigers  and  bears.  I  saw  a 
stairway,  and  with  great  effort  we  worked  our  way  up  followed 
closely  by  the  animals.  After  a  long  time  I  reached  the  top 
of  the  flight  and  saw  several  doors.  All  were  closed,  and  on 
trying  each  in  succession  I  found  them  locked.  I  was  looking 
for  a  key  to  open  one  of  them,  hut  was  still  searching  when  I 
awoke. 

Analysis:  This  patient  suffered  from  hysteria,  and  had 
a  terrible  disgust  for  sex.  She  had  had  many  opportunities 
to  marry,  but  whenever  she  thought  of  marital  relations  she 
rejected  all  her  suitors,  and  on  one  occasion  she  even  broke 
her  betrothal.  This  dream  occurred  after  most  of  her 
sexual  resistances  were  removed  by  psychoanalysis.  The 
free  associations  to  the  different  elements  of  the  dream  were 
as  follows:  Her  little  niece  typified  to  her  purity,  innocence, 
maidenhood,  qualities  which  she  attributed  to  herself,  and 
the  wdld  animals  signified  the  animal  passions  that  were  pur- 
suing her.  Although  consciously  she  had  a  horror  for  sex, 
she  was  unconsciously  very  amorous  and  craved  it. 

The  great  effort  to  reach  the  top  of  the  stairs  signified  the 
mental  conflict  about  marriage,  and  getting  to  the  top  sig- 
nified the  acceptance  of  normal  sex  without  running  away 
from  it  as  she  was  wont  to  do  before.  The  whole  act  sym- 
bolizes coitus. 

The  several  closed  doors  which  she  could  not  open  signify 
the  many  opportunities  to  marry  which  she  let  slip.  Most 
of  the  men  who  pursued  her  were  no  longer  single.  The 
locked  doors  also  recalled  the  story  of  Bluebeard.  She 
rejected  her  former  suitors  because  she  feared  sexual  inter- 
course, especially  the  act  of  defloration,  which  was  pictured 


366  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

to  her  as  "awfully  disgusting  and  very  painful."  Since  the 
age  of  puberty  she  identified  this  act  with  being  killed,  and 
thought  every  man  a  sort  of  Bluebeard. 

In  the  dream  she  was  looking  for  a  key  to  open  one  of  the 
doors.  At  this  part  of  the  dream  she  recalled  the  fairy  tale 
of  the  Enchanted  Princess,  which  runs  as  follows: 

A  poor  soldier  saved  an  enchanted  princess  by  staying 
three  nights  m  her  castle,  where  a  wicked  magician  had 
changed  her  into  a  bear.  After  marrying  the  princess  and 
living  happily  for  some  time,  the  soldier  went  on  a  journey 
to  his  old  home.  During  his  absence  all  the  trees  dried 
and  faded.  He  met  with  many  adventures,  but  finally  the 
south  wind  carried  him  back  to  the  castle,  where  a  number 
of  kings  and  princes  were  gathered  to  woo  his  wife.  As 
soon  as  he  returned  the  trees  revived,  but  as  he  was 
invisible  only  his  wife  knew  of  his  home-coming  by  this  sign. 
So  she  gave  her  guests  this  riddle  to  solve:  "I  had  a  wonder- 
ful hand-made  casket  with  a  golden  key  to  it.  I  lost  my  key 
and  never  expected  to  find  it,  but  suddenly  the  key  has  found 
itself.  Whoever  shall  guess  the  riddle  shall  be  my 
husband." 

All  the  kings  and  princes  tried  in  vain  to  guess  it.  Then 
the  princess  said:  "Come  out  and  show  yourself,  my  be- 
loved!" The  soldier  took  off  the  cap  which  made  him 
invisible,  and  taking  the  princess'  hand  he  kissed  her. 
"Here  is  the  key  to  my  riddle,"  said  the  princess.  "The 
casket  is  myself,  and  the  golden  key  is  my  husband."  All 
the  wooers  had  to  go  home,  and  the  princess  and  the 
soldier  lived  happily  ever  after.  ^ 

This  fairy  tale  as  an  association  to  the  dream  is  of  double 
interest.     First,  it  explains  the  meaning  of  the  dream  by 


FAIRY  TALES   AS   A   DETERMINANT   OF  DREAMS        367 

showing  the  patient  the  true  state  of  her  mind.  She  has 
overcome  most  of  her  sexual  resistances;  she  wishes  one  of 
her  suitors  would  come  back;  she  is  looking  for  the  key. 
Second,  it  also  shows  very  nicely  the  symbolization  of  the 
male  and  female  genitals  by  the  key  and  casket,  symbols 
that  are  often  encountered  in  dreams  and  myths. 

I  could  cite  any  number  of  dreams  showing  influences 
of  fairy  tales,  but  I  will  content  myself  with  these  two,  and 
will  proceed  to  show  the  part  played  by  fairy  tales  in 
neurotic  symptoms. 

Mr.  L.  is  a  young  man  of  about  thirty  years  who  sufl'ered 
from  a  mixed  neurosis,  his  main  phobia  being  a  fear  of 
blood.  At  first  he  was  afraid  of  seeing  blood  because  it 
made  him  faint.  Later,  the  mere  idea  of  blood  produced 
the  same  effect.  He  was  afraid  to  talk  to  certain  people 
because  they  were  likely  to  speak  about  accidents  which 
would  suggest  blood.  The  sight  of  a  man  who  looked  like 
a  doctor  was  enough  to  evoke  the  idea  of  operation  and 
blood  with  the  accompanying  symptoms  of  anxiety.  By  a 
process  of  generalization  and  symbolization  the  idea  of 
blood  became  projected  to  almost  everything.  Thus, 
measuring  his  blood-pressure  brought  on  a  fainting  spell. 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  go  into  a  lengthy  analysis  of  the 
case.  I  merely  wish  to  show  some  of  the  determinants  of 
the  phobia. 

At  a  very  early  age  L.  displayed  a  striking  sexual  curiosity. 
At  the  age  of  seven  years  he  took  a  girl  to  a  water-closet  and 
practised  with  her  mutual  exhibitionism.  He  was  detected 
by  his  parents  and  severely  punished  for  it.  He  received 
much  information  about  sex  from  street  boys,  who  taught 
him  to  repeat  many  vulgar  expressions.     At  the  same  age 


368  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

he  was  circumcised.  His  father  and  the  doctor  took  him 
off  the  street  one  afternoon  without  any  warning  and  put 
him  under  the  anesthetic.  When  he  regained  conscious- 
ness he  found  himself  bandaged  and  suffering  from  pain. 
At  still  an  earlier  age  he  was  instructed  by  one  of  his  asso- 
ciates that  the  vagina  was  like  a  piece  of  raw  beef  with  a 
cut  in  the  center.  Thereafter,  whenever  he  ate  steak  or 
beef,  he  thought  of  this  association.  During  the  analysis  I 
found  many  evidences  of  early  impressions  from  fairy  tales. 
When  he  was  quite  young  his  nurse  told  him  and  read  to 
him  some  of  the  most  gruesome  fairy  stories,  which  he 
continued  to  read  himself  at  a  later  age.  These  bloody  and 
horrible  stories  made  a  strong  impression  on  him.  He 
would  form  fancies  about  them  on  going  to  sleep  at  night, 
substituting  himself  for  the  hero.  He  continued  this 
fancying  for  years,  and  as  he  grew  older  they  were  usually 
acompanied  by  masturbation.  I  noticed  that  his  dreams 
were  usually  divided  into  three  parts,  and  investigation 
showed  that  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  events  in  fairy  tales 
usually  go  by  threes.  The  prince  in  disguise  has  to  over- 
come obstacles,  and  always  succeeds  the  third  time.  When 
he  became  old  enough  to  say  his  prayers  before  going  to 
sleep  he  divided  them  also  into  three  parts,  each  expressing 
a  distinct  wish.  This  was  directly  determined  by  the  three 
wishes  from  the  fairy  tale.  His  dreams,  too,  usually 
expressed  three  distinct  wishes.  As  an  illustration  the 
following  dream  will  serve: 

I  was  looking  at  some  field-glasses,  and  there  were  three  pair 
that  looked  exactly  alike,  but  they  had  different  prices.  Then 
I  was  in  a  room,  and  it  seemed  that  there  was  a  woman  there 
who  had  a  good  many  dogs  on  one  chain — all  on  the  same  chain 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         369 

— and  we  had  an  awful  time  trying  to  separate  them.  (Later 
addition:  They  all  wanted  to  bite  one  another's  tail,)  I  had 
sexual  intercourse  with  X.,  and  looked  into  her. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  associations  with  their 
analyses : 

The  field-glasses  symbolize  sexual  curiosity.  This  is 
determined  by  the  fact  that  at  the  age  of  eight  years  he  was 
often  very  anxious  to  get  his  father's  field-glasses,  and  when- 
ever his  father  was  absent  he  went  through  his  private 
desk  and  got  them.  His  object  was  to  look  into  the  rooms 
across  the  way  in  the  hope  of  seeing  naked  women.  On 
one  occasion,  while  looking  through  the  desk,  he  found  a  col- 
lection of  pictures  representing  nude  females,  belonging 
to  his  father,  which  gave  him  considerable  food  for  sexual 
fancies.  The  three  field-glasses  symbolize  sexual  curiosity 
about  his  mother,  sister  and  wife.  When  a  boy  he  took 
every  occasion  to  see  his  mother  and  sister  naked,  and  since 
his  marriage  he  displays  the  same  morbid  curiosity  about 
his  wife.  He  likes  to  see  her  urinate  and  defecate,  and  often 
begs  for  this  privilege.  The  idea  behind  his  desire  always 
has  been:  "How  does  it  look  inside?"  He  often  looked 
through  the  keyhole  when  his  mother  or  sister  were  taking 
a  bath,  and  frequently  saw  them  naked.  This  association 
recalled  the  story  of  Bluebeard  in  which  curiosity  played 
a  great  part.  He  related  this  story  with  many  distortions. 
"Bluebeard  had  three  wives;  he  lived  in  a  castle  on  the  top 
of  which  no  one  was  permitted.  He  carried  a  large  key 
spotted  with  blood.  The  keyhole  was  also  bloody,"  etc. 
The  distortions  are  explained  as  follows:  The  three  wives 
are  his  mother,  sister  and  wife,  whom  he  often  identifies. 
In  this  connection  I  would  mention  a  strange  coincidence: 

24 


370  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

when  we  spoke  about  this  identification  he  told  me  that 
his  wife  and  sister  remarkably  resembled  each  other;  they 
look  like  twin  sisters,  and  are  repeatedly  mistaken  for  each 
other.  I  will  add  that  they  are  not  at  all  related.  He  was 
born  on  the  Pacific  coast,  while  his  wife  is  a  New  England 
girl.  The  resemblance  is  so  marked  that  even  his  own  and 
his  wife's  relatives  and  his  sister's  schoolmates  often  mis- 
take his  wife  for  his  sister.  I  have  in  my  possession  photo- 
graphs of  both.  I  have  shown  them  to  many  people,  but 
none  could  positively  distinguish  one  from  the  other.  His 
sister  is  the  image  of  his  mother.  ^ 

The  bloody  key  recalled  another  dream  in  which  the  key 
was  a  symbol  for  the  penis.  This  symbol  did  not  have  to 
be  explained  to  him.  He  attended  a  boys'  school  where  the 
boys  used  to  refer  to  the  penis  as  "  nookie."  This  neologism 
stood  for  "new  key,"  and  was  well  known  to  all  the  boys. 
The  bloody  key  and  keyhole  correspond  to  his  early  con- 
ception of  the  female  genitals  as  a  piece  of  raw  beef  with 
a  cut  in  the  center,  as  well  as  to  his  circumcision. 

Besides  the  story  of  Bluebeard,  he  used  to  build  many 
fancies  on  the  story  of  the  princess  who  was  rolled  in  a 
barrel  into  which  long  pointed  spikes  were  driven,  and  as  he 
grew  older  he  was  fascinated  by  the  Iron  Maiden,  which  he 
saw  in  a  museum  and  concerning  which  he  wove  many  fan- 
cies. In  other  words,  his  sadistic  component  was  markedly 
accentuated  and  kept  alive  by  these  blood-curdling  fairy 
stories,  which  later  formed  the  direct  connection  between 
blood,  cruelty  and  sex.  There  were  other  determinants — 
thus  the  identification  with  his  mother  who  was  also  afraid 
of  blood — but  I  cannot  take  them  up  here. 

The  other  part  of  the  dream — the  dogs  holding  each  other 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         371 

by  the  tail — refers  to  fellatio,  which  he  practiced  as  a  boy, 
and  to  some  homosexual  experiences  in  later  life. 

Doing  things  three  times  and  succeeding  only  in  the  end, 
as  is  so  often  found  in  the  different  collections  of  fairy  tales, 
has  given  rise  to  many  superstitions.  A  nice  example  was 
furnished  me  by  the  analysis  of  this  dream:  "/  saw  three 
long-necked  bottles.  One  was  almost  broken  to  pieces,  the 
second  was  cracked  and  the  third  contained  sparkling  cham- 
pagne.^' 

This  dream  was  given  to  me  by  a  widow  of  forty-two 
years.  As  far  back  as  she  remembered  all  her  important 
affairs  of  life  went  by  threes.  Before  her  marriage  she 
measured  her  suitors  in  this  way.  She  never  expected  much 
of  the  first  suitor,  she  looked  with  greater  favor  on  the 
second  and  expected  to  marry  the  third.  The  man  whom 
she  actually  married  had  to  propose  to  her  three  times  before 
she  accepted  him.  This  number-three  ceremonial  was 
determined  by  the  fairy  stories  she  used  to  hear  and  read 
since  childhood,  especially  the  following  one,  which  she 
consciously  took  as  a  model.  It  is  the  story  of  a  princess 
whom  her  father  put  in  a  castle  on  the  top  of  a  very  steep 
glass  mountain.  The  knight  who  could  get  up  there  on  his 
horse  was  to  receive  her  in  marriage.  The  youngest  of 
three  brothers,  who  was  considered  a  simpleton,  but  who 
was  really  the  smartest  of  all  of  them,  finally  reached  the 
top  on  the  third  attempt,  and  married  the  princess. 

This  number-three  ceremonial  was  really  one  of  her 
obsessions.  For  years  it  was  subjected  to  all  kinds  of  modi- 
fications, thus,  if  she  accidentally  broke  a  dish,  she  had  no 
rest  until  she  broke  two  more  dishes,  so  that  she  always  had 
on  hand  some  discarded  bottles  which  served  that  purpose. 


372  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Whenever  she  broke  something  by  accident  she  immediately 
broke  two  more  bottles.  We  can  now  understand  her 
dream.  The  three  long-necked  bottles  are  symbolic  of 
three  men.  Her  dead  husband  is  represented  by  the 
broken  bottle,  the  man  who  was  her  lover  for  years  after  her 
husband's  death  is  represented  by  the  cracked  bottle,  while 
the  third  containing  sparkling  champagne  is  meant  to 
represent  the  man  who  was  paying  her  attention  at  the  time 
of  the  dream.  The  champagne  in  the  bottle  is  doubly 
determined ;  it  symbolizes  the  quality  of  the  man,  and  is  an 
allusion  to  alcoholism  to  which  they  were  both  addicted. 

With  one  exception,  all  the  cases  showing  the  influence  of 
fairy  tales  that  came  under  my  notice  were  usually  neuroses 
or  negatives  of  perversions.  The  following  case  is  of 
interest,  because  here  the  fairy  tales  and  mythological  stories 
directly  determine  the  perversion  of  sadism. 

This  patient,  a  young  man  of  twenty-eight  years,  was 
homosexual,  and  had  morbid  desires  to  bite  and  stab  people, 
and  to  torture  them  in  all  sorts  of  fi.endish  ways.  He 
stated  that  when  he  felt  weak  he  indulged  in  horrid,  sadistic 
fancies,  which  gave  him  strength  and  vigor.  He  yearned 
for  those  times  when  everybody  carried  the  dirk  and  dagger, 
and  could  kill  when  offended.  He  often  carried  a  revolver, 
although  he  never  used  it.  He  was  fascinated  by  wild  ani- 
mals, especially  the  tiger,  which  always  excited  him.  He 
spent  much  time  in  the  menagerie  in  front  of  the  tiger's 
cage,  and  when  unobserved  by  the  keeper  he  would  tease  the 
animal  in  order  to  see  him  jump  and  hear  him  roar.  He 
was  under  the  impression  that  he  exerted  a  similar  influence 
on  the  tiger,  and  on  other  wild  animals.  It  seemed  to 
him  that  the  tiger  became  restless  in  his  presence  and 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF    DREAMS        373 

grew  more  ferocious  when  he  looked  at  him.  A  fancy  which 
often  recurred  was  the  following:  "I  am  annoyed  and 
angered  by  some  one  to  such  an  extent  that  I  run  wild  and 
bite  everybody  that  comes  in  my  way,  until  I  bite  my  way 
into  some  person's  body." 

Concerning  the  life  of  this  patient,  whom  we  shall  desig- 
nate as  L.,  it  may  be  said  that  he  is  somewhat  burdened  by 
heredity,  that  he  is  of  American  parentage  and  was  brought 
up  in  cultured  surroundings.  He  always  wished  to  be  an 
actor,  and  for  at  least  two  seasons  he  was  a  member  of  a 
stock  company.  Being  a  delicate  child,  his  mother  was 
particularly  anxious  about  him  and  gave  him  more  care 
and  love  than  to  the  other  children.  Thus  he  recalled  that 
he  often  slept  with  his  mother  up  to  the  age  of  eight,  and 
also  at  a  later  age  whenever  he  was  not  feeling  well.  He 
was  very  precocious  and  inquisitive,  and  displayed  sexual 
curiosity  at  a  very  early  age.  At  the  age  of  six  years  he 
actually  forced  his  mother  to  tell  him  some  of  the  true  facts 
of  childbirth.  He  remembers  distinctly  that  he  experienced 
sexual  feelings  between  the  ages  of  four  and  five  years. 
These  feelings  were  of  a  polymorphous  perverse  nature,  and 
at  first  mainly  concerned  sexual  looking  and  exhibitionism' 
Even  at  that  age  he  was  morbidly  attracted  by  the  male 
and  female  naked  bodies,  especially  by  the  genitals.  The 
objects  of  his  curiosity  were  the  persons  of  his  immediate 
surroundings.  At  the  age  of  six  years  he  once  caused  his 
little  sister  to  perform  fellatio  on  him.  He  began  to  mas- 
turbate at  the  age  of  seven  years,  and  continued  on  and  off 
for  some  time.  At  the  age  of  twelve  years  he  began  to 
suffer  from  the  mental  conflicts  which  usually  accompany 
masturbation,  and  which,  finally,  caused  him  to  give  it  up. 


374  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

He  never  had  any  heterosexual  feehngs,  and  since  the  age 
of  four  years  he  began  to  manifest  homosexual  tendencies 
which  gradually  developed  into  true  homosexuality.^ 

Very  soon  after  entering  into  this  patient's  psychic 
development  I  noticed  that  his  symptoms  were  largely 
determined  by  fairy  stories,  fables  and  myths.  Thus,  his 
sadism  and  other  symptoms  unmistakably  showed  an 
archaic  setting.  The  associations  to  almost  all  his  dreams 
showed  how  all  his  inner  environments  corresponded  more 
to  a  world,  as  described  by  Andersen,  Grimm,  Lang,  and 
others,  than  to  our  present  times.  The  following  dream 
fragment  with  its  associations  will  show  this: 

On  Fifth  Avenue,  with  a  crowd  of  people  looking  at  a  tiger. 
Whenever  the  animal  comes  my  way  I  fly  up  to  the  roof  of  a 
neighboring  house. 

Associations:  Flying  recalled  that  as  a  child  he  often 
entertained  many  wishes  to  be  able  to  fly  above  the  clouds, 
among  the  stars  and  planets.  *  This  recalled  his  insatiable 
interest  in  astronomy  at  the  age  of  seven  to  eight  years. 
He  used  to  ask  everybody  about  the  stars.  He  thought  that 
the  dog  star  was  a  real  dog.  He  was  told  about  the  milky 
way,  and  thought  of  it  in  terms  of  real  milk.  At  about 
the  same  period,  or  even  earlier,  he  was  keenly  interested 
in  trees.  He  wanted  to  know  where  the  sap  came  from,  and 
very  often  dug  into  the  ground  in  order  to  discover  it.  The 
associations  then  took  him  back  to  a  still  earlier  period  of  his 
life,  when  the  interest  was  centered  on  the  bodily  functions 
and  on  childbirth.  After  having  been  told  that  children 
grow  in  the  mother  he  decided  that  they  must  come  out  like 

*This  wish  was  realized  when  the  patient  served  as  an  aviator  during 
the  war;  he  is  now  a  commercial  aviator. 


FAIRY  TALES  AS  A  DETERMINANT  OF  DREAMS    375 

a  passage  of  the  bowels.  This  caused  him  to  take  a  special 
interest  in  the  openings  of  the  body,^  such  as  the  mouth, 
nose  and  anus,  as  well  as  in  their  gaseous  emanations,  such 
as  air  and  flatus.  The  interest  for  mysterious  openings 
was  later  projected  to  the  outer  world,  so  that  he  was  very 
interested  in  and  attracted  to  caves.  While  in  Sorrento  he 
made  many  expeditions  to  a  subterranean  passage  some  dis- 
tance from  the  temple  of  Hercules,  which  he  realized  was 
only  a  continuation  of  his  childish  interest  for  dark  openings. 
For  the.  same  reason,  he  was  also  fascinated  by  the  human 
voice.  This  was  at  the  age  of  sixteen  to  seventeen  years, 
and  one  of  his  few  heterosexual  erotic  dreams  at  that  age 
was  a  stereotyped  dream  of  hugging  a  woman  because  she 
had  a  beautiful  voice.  He  wondered  what  took  place  in 
those  dark  places  "way  down  in  the  mouth  and  way  up 
in  the  anus."  He  was  curious  to  find  out  how  the  child 
lives  in  the  mother's  bowels,  how  it  came  out,  and  wished  to 
go  up  there  to  find  out  all  these  mysteries.  This  fancy 
was  facilitated  by  many  fairy  stories,  especially  the  ones 
concerning  the  twelve  princes,  who  were  called  One,  Two, 
Three,  Four,  etc.,  to  Twelve,  who  went  down  to  the  bowels 
of  the  earth  and  then  became  rabbits  and  burrowed  their 
way  up,  and  the  princes  who  ran  away  into  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  and  met  with  many  strange  adventures  in  goblin 
land.  He  gave  much  thought  to  food  taken  into  the  body. 
He  was  curious  to  know  how  it  disappeared  and  what 
became  of  it.  The  same  interest  was  shown  for  the  excre- 
ments, thus,  he  would  urinate  on  the  ground  and  then  won- 
der what  happened  to  the  urine.  As  almost  all  his  fancies 
were  centered  around  his  mother,  the  connection  was  soon 
formed  between  her  bowels  and  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 


376  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Indeed,  all  his  inquisitiveness  concerning  the  earth,  trees, 
plants,  sap  nourishment  and  excretions  simply  expressed  his 
struggles  with  the  problem  of  childbirth  and  life.  He  was 
very  imaginative,  so  that  the  harrowing  adventures  enacted 
by  fairies,  genii  and  Greek  deities  on  which  he  was  con- 
stantly fed  were  deeply  interwoven  with  his  own  life,  and  he 
thus  built  up  for  himself  a  strange  archaic  world.  He  liked 
to  be  alone,  and  often  wandered  away  from  his  companions 
to  act  through  in  his  own  way  the  adventures  and  prayers 
which  he  had  just  heard  or  read.  He  himself  traced  the 
selection  of  his  profession,  that  of  an  actor,  to  these  boyish 
actions  when  he  tried  to  imitate  the  fleet-footed  Mercury, 
some  character  from  fairy  land,  the  Arabian  Nights  or 
some  savage  Indians.  He  thus  imagined  himself  flying  and 
beheading  monsters  above  the  clouds,  or  penetrating  to  the 
center  of  the  earth  in  the  form  of  some  wicked  magician,  all 
the  time  passing  through  the  most  harrowing  scenes.  By 
a  process  of  condensation  he  fused  ancient  characters  and 
episodes  with  persons  and  actions  of  reality,  but  all  his 
fancies  usually  began  with  some  god  or  demon-like  myth 
and  gradually  descended  to  human  beings.  During  the 
first  few  weeks  of  the  analysis  he  was  in  the  habit  of  merg- 
ing into  a  dreamy  state  while  reproducing  associations,  and 
often  became  so  excited  that  the  work  had  to  be  tempo- 
rarily interrupted.  Thus,  the  associations  reproduced  to 
tiger  mentioned  in  his  dream  were  as  follows:  "A  tiger 
always  excites  me;  I  feel  akin  to  the  tiger;  some  people  effect 
me  in  the  same  way.  My  father  used  to  have  something 
of  it.  My  aunt  X.,  who  was  once  crazy,  had  something  of 
the  tiger  in  her.  She  had  a  very  strong  personality,  and 
was  very  passionate.     At  the  age  of  fifty  years  she  married 


FAIRY   TALES   AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         377 

a  young  man  of  twenty  years.  Mrs.  C.  (a  paranoid,  elderly 
person,  with  whom  he  lived  for  about  a  year)  had  much  of 
the  tiger  in  her,  that  is  why  she  attracted  me  so  much; 
but  W.  (a  prominent  actress)  has  more  of  the  tiger  in  her 
than  any  one  else."  He  then  went  on  to  say  that  some  one 
told  him  that  the  human  fetus  passes  through  many  animal 
stages  before  birth;  that  it  is  at  first  a  dog  or  a  cat,  and 
then  develops  into  a  higher  animal  until  it  becomes  human. 
He  thought  that  animals  represented  only  arrested 
developments  of  men,  and  that  he  himself  reached  to  the 
stage  of  the  tiger.  This  accounted  for  his  kinship  with 
this  beast.  The  tiger  also  recalled  blood  and  animal  feel- 
ing. "The  tiger  gives  a  strange  feeling  all  over  the  body, 
especially  in  the  genitals.  When  I  think  about  him 
I  feel  irritable  like  a  caged  animal.  It  recalls  my  aggressive 
feeling — I  feel  restless.  I  see  the  claws,  blood-rending 
fierceness;  it's  horrible  (marked  excitement).  I  think  of 
flying;  I  see  huge  space  and  stars — they  exist  and  we  cannot 
grasp  them.  I  feel  like  rushing  up  and  beating  my  head 
against  the  wall.  I  feel  like  destroying  everything.  I 
think  of  the  tiger's  hot  breath  which  I'd  like  to  inhale.  I 
have  a  peculiar  feeling  down  inside  like  a  hot  blood  surging 
in  me.  I  feel  like  a  child.  I  would  like  to  touch  the  stars. 
I  have  a  feeling  of  licking  something.  I  would  like  to  go 
way  up  inside  of  it,  or  way  down  into  the  bowels  of  the 
earth  to  the  vegetation  and  seed  to  see  where  life  comes 
from  (early  conception  of  childbirth).  A  tiger  comes  from 
another  tiger"  (referring  to  his  own  birth).  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  reproduce  scenes  from  his  childhood,  when  he 
played  in  the  garden  where  the  trees  were  the  object  of 
many  fantastic  speculations.     The  trees  suggested  to  him 


378  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

life,  and  the  sap  represented  vital  fluid.  He  thought  of 
trees  as  living  beings  {Confer  the  talking  trees  in  Greek 
mythology  and  ^sops  Fables).  As  a  boy,  they  fascinated 
him  and  often  excited  him  to  an  extent  that  he  desired  coitus. 
This  desire  came  when  he  felt  weak  and  depressed,  and  he 
imagined  that  coitus  with  trees  would  give  him  renewed 
vigor.  When  told  to  go  on  with  the  associations  he  thought 
of  a  graveyard  which  was  near  the  garden.  To  quote 
further:  "I  thought  of  the  children  who  were  buried  there. 
I  can  see  white  bodies,  and  hear  the  tolling  of  church-bells. 
I  am  a  corpse,  very  cold,  awfully  cold.  I  feel  the  moisture 
coming  through  the  earth  and  wetting  everything.  Its 
dreadfully  cold  and  dreary.  I  see  blood  in  the  white  snow, 
as  if  some  one  was  killed  (excitement  and  trembling).  I 
don't  wish  to  think  of  it,  it's  horrible;  that  licking  sensation 
comes  over  me,  I  feel  like  licking  blood.  I  feel  like  killing 
myself;  I  feel  like  destroying  everything"  (stopped  for  a 
while  and  then  continued).  "I  see  a  beautiful  woman  with 
a  skull  in  her  hands.  I  love  her  very  much.  She  seems  to 
be  devoted  to  the  skull.  She  is  under  ground  as  if  after 
death;  I  hear  the  wind  blowing  dead,  dry  leaves;  spirits  seem 
to  be  around.  We  are  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  where  there 
is  the  setting  sun  and  stars.  I  see  a  stream  of  very  clear 
water,  and  she  wants  to  bathe  in  it;  I  want  to  do  the  same. 
She  is  dressed  in  white ;  she  is  very  pale  with  long  hair  hang- 
ing down  her  back.  She  now  resembles  my  mother  and 
sister,"  etc. 

This  is  a  fair  example  of  his  reproductions.  While  recit- 
ing these  and  similiar  uncanny  associations  he  usually  be- 
came very  nervous  and  excited,  so  that  it  frequently  became 
necessary  to  arouse  him  from  his  dreamy  state  for  fear  that 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS        379 

he  would  do  some  harm.  When  I  went  still  further  into 
the  different  components  of  these  associations,  I  found  that 
they  were  all  explained  by  some  fairy  tale  or  myth.  Thus, 
the  flying  was  not  only  determined  by  flying  fairies,  but 
recalled  also  the  story  of  Perseus,  who  undertook  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  Islands  of  the  Gorgons,  for  which  purpose 
he  was  furnished  by  Vulcan  with  a  sickle-shaped  sword, 
by  Mercury  with  winged  shoes,  etc.  He  vividly  recalled 
the  many  adventures  Perseus  encountered,  how  he  rode  the 
flying  horse  Pegasus,  and  how  he  finally  cut  off  Medusa's 
head,  and  so  on.  The  subject  of  flying  always  had  a  morbid 
interest  for  him.  He  often  had  dreams  and  fancies  of  fly- 
ing above  tall  trees  and  tropical  vegetations.  As  far  as  I 
could  investigate  they  were  based  on  the  infantile  "All- 
macht  der  Gedanken"  (allmightiness  of  thought),  when 
he  wished  to  be  big  and  imitate  the  heroes  of  his  imaginary 
world.  Later  in  life  he  noticed  that  the  flying  dreams  and 
fancies  usually  occurred  whenever  he  was  very  depressed. 
They  thus  served  as  a  compensation  for  his  sorrows  or  as 
a  refuge  from  reality;  also,  flying  above  the  clouds  and  high 
trees  is  the  opposite  of  going  down  to  the  bowels  of  the 
earth.  The  latter  were  identified  with  his  mother's  bowels, 
i.e.,  the  interior  of  his  mother.  At  the  age  of  six  and  seven 
years,  and  perhaps  even  earlier,  he  often  yearned  to  be  back 
in  his  mother's  bowels.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  contig- 
uous association  concerning  the  children  buried  in  the 
graveyard  and  himself  being  a  corpse.  The  earth  was  sym- 
bolic of  his  own  mother  or  mother  earth,  while  the  tall 
trees  producing  sap  symbolized  his  father.  The  strangest 
of  all  his  impulses  was  sexual  union  with  the  earth.  He 
often  put  this  morbid  desire  into  practice,  and  maintained 


380  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

that  it  strengthened  and  invigorated  him.  The  moisture, 
snow,  cold,  dreariness,  etc.,  brought  back  many  such 
scenes  from  fairy  tales  and  mythology.  It  also  recalled 
Eva,  the  heroine  in  the  Little  People  of  the  Snow,  by  Wil- 
liam Cullen  Bryant,  who  was  enticed  by  the  snow  fairy  and 
taken  to  a  snow  cave,  where  she  went  through  many 
adventures  and  was  finally  found  by  her  parents  frozen  to 
death. 

The  next  associations  concerned  the  beautiful  woman 
who  held  a  skull,  to  which  she  was  devoted  and  whom  he 
loved  so  much.  The  woman  represents  a  condensation  of 
his  mother  and  his  sister,  as  shown  by  the  woman's  resem- 
blance to  them.  The  sister  referred  to  was  his  senior  by  a 
little  over  a  year.  As  children  they  were  very  intimate  and 
always  played  together.  He  recalled  particularly  one  game 
which  he  himself  invented.  It  was  called  "knockers,"  and 
meant  that  everybody  would  be  knocked  on  the  head  and 
killed, — parents,  sisters,  brothers  and  everybody  else. 
They  would  then  fancy  how  they  would  be  the  only  ones 
left  in  this  world,  how  they  would  marry  and  have  children 
together  and  have  so  much  fun. 

The  skuU  represented  himself  and  his  dead  father,  to 
both  of  whom  his  mother  and  this  particular  sister  were 
very  devoted. 

As  we  have  to  content  ourselves  with  a  small  fragment 
of  this  strange  case,  we  shall  proceed  to  the  following  sum- 
mary: We  have  here  a  psychopathic  individual  of  twenty- 
eight  years,  somewhat  burdened  by  heredity,  who  was 
homosexual  and  evinced  many  perversions.  His  sexual 
life  was  infantile  in  its  make-up,  evincing  polymorphous 
perversities.     When  we  traced  its  development  we  found 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         381 

that  it  did  not  follow  the  normal  stages.  The  inversion 
began  to  manifest  itself  between  four  and  five  years,  and 
the  sadism  at  about  the  same  age.  These  abnormal  feel- 
ings continued  more  or  less  to  the  age  of  puberty.  He  dis- 
played a  strong  homosexual  curiosity  throughout  his  whole 
life,  and  sadism  cropped  up  every  once  in  a  while  in  his 
effort  at  adjustment.  Thus,  at  the  age  of  four  to  five  years 
he  evinced  homosexual  feelings  for  his  father,  and  at  six 
years  he  was  passionately  fond  of  a  doll,  a  dark-haired  boy; 
he  invented  sadistic  games,  knocked  down  and  trampled 
on  little  girls  while  playing  with  them;  and,  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  years,  while  attending  his  aunt's  funeral,  he  was 
severely  reprimanded  because  he  simply  could  not  stop 
laughing.  At  the  age  of  puberty  and  later  his  abnormal 
feelings  gradually  assumed  much  greater  proportions. 
He  was  constantly  obsessed  with  homosexual  feelings,  had 
many  homosexual  affairs,  and,  although  he  never  indulged 
in  gross  homosexual  practices,  he  was  continually  forced  to 
suppress  strong  desires  for  fellatio.  As  far  as  I  could  dis- 
cover, it  was  his  religious  and  ethical  training  (fear  of  the 
law)  that  restrained  him  from  putting  his  homosexual 
desires  in  operation;  for  the  same  reason  he  held  in  check 
his  sadism,  his  masturbation  and  the  other  partial  impulses. 
Whenever  he  indulged  in  masturbation  or  in  sexual  looking, 
he  became  very  remorseful  and  passed  through  many  reli- 
gious conflicts.  As  he  grew  older  there  was  a  regressive 
revival,  or  perhaps  only  an  increase  in  his  libido,  and  he 
then  resorted  entirely  to  fancy  formations  of  a  sadistic 
homosexual  nature.  These  fancies  were  a  substitute  for 
reality,  and,  as  was  shown  above,  served  in  a  manner  to 
gratify  his  abnormal  sexuality. 


382  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

But  besides  these  fancies  he  sometimes  indulged  in  very 
strange  ceremonials.  I  refer  to  his  sexual  impulses  for  trees 
and  the  earth.  From  what  was  said  above  and  other 
material  not  reported  here,  it  is  quite  clear  that  we  deal 
with  erotic  symbolisms  which  sprang  into  existence  by  way 
of  "animism,"  that  is,  like  primitive  man,  he  assumed 
personality  in  objects.  He  considered  the  earth  and  trees 
in  the  light  of  human  beings.  This  is  nothing  but  a  form  of 
archaic  thinking,  found  in  the  earliest  stages  of  mental 
evolution  among  savages  {Confer  the  many  myths,  espe- 
cially those  of  the  American  Indian)  and  in  our  times  among 
children  and  psychotics.  *  Here  the  tree  symbohzes  his 
father,  while  the  earth,  his  mother,  symbols  which  may 
sound  strange  only  to  the  modern  mind.  In  antiquity 
those  very  symbols  are  ubiquitous.  The  earth  or 
mother  earth  and  the  trees  are  early  symbols  of  the 
female  and  the  male  principles  found  in  the  mythology 
of  all  races,'^  thus  the  Latins  referred  to  the  penis  as 
arbor   (tree).*t 

That  the  patient  should  have  adopted  these  symbols  of 
antiquity  will  not  be  surprising  to  those  who  are  acquainted 
with  psychoanalysis,  and  who  followed  the  various  stages 
that  lead  to  this  adoption.     Moreover,  this  becomes  clearer 

*  Even  at  a  much  later  stage  of  civilization  we  find  that  Xerxes 
ordered  the  sea  scourged  because  his  bridges  across  the  Hellespont 
had  been  wrecked  by  a  violent  storm.  Recently,  I  had  been  present 
when  a  child  could  not  be  appeased  until  a  chair  against  which  it  fell 
was  spanked.  Cf.  also  Freud's  Totem  and  Taboo,  Moffat  Yard  & 
Co.  New  York,  1918,  also  the  works  of  Nelken  and  Spielrein. 

1 1  am  indebted  to  Dr.  Reginald  Alfred  Allan  for  calhng  my  attention 
to  the  poem  L'arbrc  in  Les  Chansons  de  Bilitis,  which  contains  a 
description  of  sexual  congress  with  a  tree. 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         383 

if  we  recall  the  psychological  mechanisms  of  homosexuality, 
all  of  which  were  found  in  our  patient.  Thus,  although  he 
evinced  homosexual  desires  at  an  early  age  he  was  not  at  all 
indifferent  to  the  charms  of  women.  At  the  age  of  fourteen 
he  entertained  an  ideal  love  for  a  girl  older  than  himself. 
On  one  occasion  he  was  in  love  with  a  well-known  actress, 
and  had  besides  many  adventurous  experiences  with  other 
women.  It  must,  however,  be  remarked  that  none  at- 
tracted him  sexually.  He  was  always  very  much  attached 
to  his  mother,  and  as  a  child  he  was  extremely  jealous  of 
his  father,  so  that  he  could  not  tolerate  any  affection  shown 
by  his  mother.  Here,  too,  his  sadism  often  became  mani- 
fest— he  tyrannized  over  his  mother  and  had  sadistic  dreams 
in  which  she  was  maltreated.  One  dream,  which  left  a 
strong  impression  on  him,  was  the  following: 

"A  masculine  woman,  with  yellow  hair  and  black  dress, 
visited  my  mother  in  our  summer  home.  She  got  my  mother 
on  the  table  and  nearly  heat  the  life  out  of  her.  She  caught 
hold  of  my  mother^ s  hair  and  it  came  off  as  though  it  were 
artificial.  I  was  terrified  and  pitied  my  mother  very  much, 
because  she  was  so  gentle.  The  hair  that  came  off  resembled 
the  genitals  of  a  woman." 

The  masculine  woman  represents  the  type  of  woman  of 
"the  tiger  variety,"  whom  he  admired  so  much.  The  yel- 
low color  of  the  hair  and  the  black  dress  seems  to  confirm 
this  association.  As  the  chief  actor  in  the  dream  is  the 
dreamer,  he  himself  must  be  the  masculine  woman  who 
nearly  beat  the  life  out  of  his  mother.  This  becomes  more 
significant  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  identified  himself 
with  the  tiger  which  stood,  as  it  were,  for  the  totem  of  his 
father.     The  tearing  out  of  the  hair  which  resembled  the 


384  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

female  genitalia  is  explained  by  the  following  associations: 
When  he  was  five  years  old  he  displayed  a  morbid  curiosity 
about  his  mother's  genitalia ;  he  resorted  to  many  ingenious 
ways  until  he  accomplished  his  desire.  Thus,  he  insisted 
that  his  mother  allow  him  to  button  her  shoes;  he  also  took 
every  opportunity  to  sleep  with  her.  What  impressed  him 
most  was  the  hair.  The  whole  dream  represents  a  sadistic 
attack  on  the  object  he  loved  most.* 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  the  same  period  he  had 
nightmares  in  which  he  was  run  over  by  steam-engines. 
The  same  sadistic  feeling  was  later  transferred  to  his  sym- 
bolic mother  (the  mother  earth)  concerning  whom  he  talks 
as  follows:  "I  thought  a  great  deal  about  the  earth,  and 
how  it  absorbed  everything.  I  liked  to  urinate  on  it,  and 
then  lie  down  with  my  penis  on  the  ground.  I  had  a  great 
affection  for  it.  This  feeling  later  changed,  and  I  then 
wanted  to  punch  the  earth  and  women's  genitals."  (The 
last  association  shows  the  identification  between  the  earth 
and  the  mother.)  In  addition  he  had  many  open  (Edipus 
dreams. 

In  brief,  the  earth  and  the  tree  were  erotic  symbolisms 
which  unconsciously  represented  to  him  his  own  mother  and 
father.  The  sexual  impulses  for  these  inanimate  objects 
were  nothing  but  a  return  to  his  infancy  when  all  his  love- 
life  was  centered  on  his  parents,  particularly  on  his  mother. 
Later  in  life,  when  this  love  could  no  longer  be  found  in  the 
mother,  and  being  unable  to  obtain  it  in  a  normal  manner 
from  strangers,  he  returned  to  his  symbolic  mother,  and, 

*  Prof.  Freud's  Kleiner  Hans  showed  at  the  age  of  five  years  similar 
conscious  sadistic  feehngs  toward  his  mother.  Neurosenlehre  Dritte 
Folge,  p.  67,  Deuticke,  Wien,  1913. 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         385 

like  the  giant  Antaeus,  he  renewed  his  strength  every  time 
he  touched  the  earth — his  mother.  * 

This  case  seems  to  confirm  the  views  expressed  by  Federn 
in  his  instructive  paper ^  that  "the  active  components  of  the 
sexual  impulse  are  not  identical  with  sadism,  but  that  they 
can  only  become  transformed  into  sadism  through  peculiar 
psychic  mechanisms;  that  this  transformation  takes  place 
at  a  period  when  the  sexual  desire  is  not  yet  consciously 
directed  toward  the  accomplishment  of  the  sexual  act,  but  is 
perceived  in  a  vague,  immature  and  auto-erotic  manner  as 
an  active  sexual  impulse,  with  an  as  yet  undeveloped  end 
aim  of  the  sexual  activity  for  the  desired  object,  for  the 
specific  sadism  can  be  traced  in  all  cases  to  the  prepubescent, 
often  infantile,  period  of  the  individual." 

Thus,  even  in  our  matter-of-fact  times  it  is  possible  to 
find  a  person  who,  having  been  surrounded  in  childhood  by 
a  phantastic,  unreal  world  of  fairy  tales,  fables  and  myths, 
•  developed  into  a  strange  being  not  unlike  a  character  of  the 
pre-Homeric  period,  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  modern 
cultural  life.f  There  is  no  denying  that  this  is  a  unique 
case;  but,  although  I  have  not  seen  another  psychoneurotic 
with  such  a  pronounced  archaic  make-up,  I  have,  neverthe- 
less, observed  many  persons  who  showed  the  same  mechan- 

*  I  can  report  two  more  cases  where  the  earth  was  connected  with 
sexual  congress:  (1)  A  mild  paraphrenic  had  dreams  of  having  sexual 
relations  with  the  earth.  (2)  A  young  married  man  suffered  from 
somnambulic  states  during  which  he  cohabited  with  his  wife,  all  the 
time  imagining  that  he  was  digging  a  field  or  the  street.  In  both  cases 
there  was  a  strong  mother  fixation. 

f  It  is  now  about  ten  years  since  this  patient  was  cured  by  psycho- 
analysis. He  has  remained  perfectly  well  and  shows  no  trace  of  his 
symptoms. 

25 


386  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

isms  in  a  lesser  degree.  Thus,  I  can  mention  the  case  of  an 
intelligent  business  man  of  fifty  years,  who  cannot  fall 
asleep  without  living  through  for  at  least  an  hour, 
sometimes  even  longer,  some  distorted  story  from  fairy- 
books  or  mythology.  He  vainly  tried  everything  imagin- 
able to  rid  himself  of  this  disagreeable  obsession,  which  was 
directly  traceable  to  his  childhood  when  he  was  read  to  sleep 
by  fairy  tales  and  similar  stuff.  As  he  reached  puberty 
these  stories  became  distorted  and  assumed  an  erotic  tinge, 
and  he  then  noticed  that  these  episodes  were  regularly 
followed  by  an  attack  of  palpitation,  which  was  worse  if  he 
made  an  effort  to  abstain  from  his  abnormal  fancies.  These 
fancies  sometimes  obtruded  themselves  during  the  day  and 
entirely  incapacitated  him.  I  have  seen  two  other  adults, 
both  sadistic,  who  suffered  from  similar  afflictions.  In 
both  cases  the  fairy  tales  were  so  distorted  as  to  be  almost 
beyond  recognition,  but  there  was  no  doubt  about  their 
origin. 

It  is  in  young  children,  however,  where  one  often  sees  the 
evil  effects  of  sadistic  fairy  tales.  Within  the  last  few  years 
I  have  seen  a  number  of  children  who  were  suffering  from 
pavor  nocturnus  and  diverse  phobias,  in  whom  the  symptoms 
were  directly  determined  by  some  terrifying  fairy  story. 
Thus,  a  boy  of  six  years  suddenly  became  excitable  and 
anxious,  he  was  afraid  to  sleep  alone,  and  showed  many 
typical  attacks  of  anxiety.  Investigation  showed  that  he 
belonged  to  those  children  who  are  constantly  amused  by 
their  parents  and  nurses.  He  was  passionately  fond  of 
stories,  which  were  read  and  told  to  him  for  hours  daily. 
His  attacks  were  largely  determined  by  such  stories  as 
Jack  the  Giant  Killer,  The  Boy  Who  Did  Not  Know  How  to 


I 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS        387 

Shiver  and  others  of  a  similar  nature.  To  be  sure,  the 
anxiety  as  such  has  a  different  origin,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  sadistic  and  masochistic  stories  helped  to  develop  or 
to  keep  alive  abnormal  sexual  tendencies 

Asnaourow  reported  the  case  of  a  boy  of  five  years^°  who 
was  aroused  sexually  when  his  nurse  told  him  the  story  of 
Cyrus  the  Younger,  who  caused  one  of  his  most  distin- 
guished friends  to  be  whipped.  This  boy  later  became  a 
homosexual  masochist.  I  have  observed  a  few  similar 
cases  of  which  I  shall  mention  two.  A  homosexual  with 
sadistic  tendencies  related  to  me  that  as  a  young  boy, 
probably  at  about  the  age  of  six  years,  he  heard  the  story 
of  Aladdin's  Wonderful  Lamp,  and  it  immediately  became 
the  object  of  his  fancies.  On  going  to  sleep  he  imagined 
himself  the  possessor  of  this  omnipotent  lamp,  and  by 
means  of  it  caused  the  genii  to  do  his  bidding.  Most 
of  his  wishes  had  to  do  with  whipping  and  torturing 
some  one. 

Another  patient  suffering  from  active  and  passive  algo- 
lagnia with  erotic  zoophilia  for  horses  was  not  only  fed  on 
fairy  tales  of  all  description,  but  at  a  very  early  age  he  was 
fascinated  by  Froissart's  Chronicles  and  Bible  Steps  for 
Little  Pilgrims.  These  books,  especially  the  former,  con- 
tain many  lurid  pictures  of  head-cutting,  murders  and 
assassinations  by  knights  on  horseback.  At  the  age  of  six 
years  a  little  girl  appealed  to  him,  and  the  thought  came  to 
him  that  her  head  should  be  cut  off.  At  the  age  of  eight 
years  he  had  a  dream  in  which  he  was  a  knight  and  his  head 
was  about  tiD  be  cut  off. 

In  brief,  psychoanalysis  of  patients  often  shows  the  direct 
harmful  effects  of  sadistic  reading  material  in  childhood. 


388  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

This  is  not  to  be  surprised  at  when  one  remembers  that 
pain  is  intimately  related  to  sex." 

Besides  the  cases  that  I  have  reported  I  have  seen  others 
who,  although  showing  no  algolagnia,  are  phantastic 
dreamers  entirely  unfit  to  cope  with  the  stern  realities  of 
modern  life.  Having  been  imbued  in  childhood  with  the 
omnipotence  of  the  fairy-book  heroes,  they  wish  to  be  like 
them,  and  later  refuse,  or  find  it  hard,  to  become  plain 
citizens  struggling  for  existence.  Such  individuals  are 
constantly  wishing  for  the  unattainable  that  could  only  be 
gotten  through  some  of  the  charms  of  fairyland,  such  as 
magic  boots,  invisible  caps,  Aladdin's  Lamp,  the  Garuda 
Stone  and  so  on.  It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that  such 
persons  are  unhappy  as  adults  and  think  themselves  out  of 
place  among  ordinary  mortals.  Wanke  justly  asks^^: 
"Of  what  benefit  is  it  for  the  child  to  read  fairy  tales  where 
there  is  so  much  about  murder  and  killing,  and  where 
human  life  is  treated  in  the  most  careless  manner  as  if  it 
amounted  to  nothing?  What  does  the  child  gain  by 
reading  about  criminal  acts  which  bring  no  serious  conse- 
quences on  the  person  perpetrating  them?"^^ 

Cases,  such  as  here  described,  clearly  show  the  harm  that 
such  reading  may  do.  To  be  sure  there  is  no  objection 
to  fairy  tales  that  are  not  based  on  algolagnia  and  which 
teach  moral  lessons  compatible  with  normal   adjustment. 

PREFERENCES 

1.  Cf.  the  works  of  Freud,  Riklin,  Abraham,  Rank,  Putnam  and 
Jones. 

2.  Freud:  Marohenstoffe  in  Traumen,  Internat.  Zeitschrift  f.  iirzt- 
liche  Psychoanalyse,  Vol.  I,  Heft  2. 

3.  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  234. 

4.  Russian  Folk-Lore,  translated  by  Helen  Schoenberg. 


FAIRY   TALES    AS    A    DETERMINANT    OF   DREAMS         389 

5.  Cf.  Chap.  XI. 

6.  Freud:  Ueber  Infantile  Sexualtheorien  Neurosenlehre,  2d  Series. 

7.  Cf.  Inman:  Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern  Christian  Symbolism. 
p.  112;  also  Freud:  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams,  p.  242,  foot-note 

8.  Havelock  Ellis:  Erotic  Symbolism,  p.  5. 

9.  Beitrage  zur  Analyse  des  Sadismus  und  Masochismus,  Intemat. 
Zeitschrift  f.  Xrztliche  Psychoanalyse,  Jan.,  1913. 

10.  Monatschefte  fiir  Padagogic  und  Schulpolitick,  No.  10,  1912. 

11.  See  above,  p.  252.     Cf.  also  Havelock  Ellis:  Analysis  of  the 
Sexual  Impulse,  pp.  56-152. 

12.  Psychiatrie  u.  Padagogic  Grenzfragen  des  Nerven  und  Seelen- 
leben. 

13.  Quoted  by  Asnaourow:  Sadismus,  Masochismus,  p.  11. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
ANAL  EROTICISM  AND  CHARACTER 

When  it  was  said  above  that  the  character  of  a  person  is 
nothing  but  the  sum  total  of  his  past  impression  it  was 
meant  in  the  literal  sense.  For  it  is  not  only  impressions 
that  the  individual  receives  when  he  is  a  reasoning  being  in 
full  contact  with  his  environment,  as  in  the  case  of  fairy 
tales,  that  leave  their  imprints,  but  even  the  sensations 
emitted  by  the  biological  functions  which  proceed  as  it 
were,  unconsciously,  and  automatically,  work  changes  in  the 
individual  which  result  in  definite  traits  of  character. 
Such  traits  may  begin  very  early  in  life  and  gradually 
change  with  the  advancing  age. 

In  his  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex  Freud 
shows  that  the  sexual  impulse  in  man  consists  of  many 
components  and  partial  impulses.  Many  essential  con- 
tributions to  the  sexual  excitement  are  furnished  by  the 
peripheral  excitement  of  certain  parts  of  the  body,  such  as 
the  genitals,  mouth,  anus  and  bladder  outlets  which  we 
call  erogenous  zones.  All  these  zones  are  active  in  infancy 
and  only  some  of  them  go  to  make  up  the  sexual  life.  The 
others  are  deflected  from  the  sexual  aims  and  utilized  for 
other  purposes.  This  is  the  so  called  process  of  sublimation. 
During  the  sexual  latency  period — four  to  beginning  of 
puberty,  nine  to  eleven — reaction  formations  like  shame, 
loathing  and  mortality,  are  formed  in  the  psychic  life  of  the 

individual  at  the  cost  of  the  excitements  furnished  by  these 

390 


ANAL    EROTICISM    AND    CHARACTER  391 

erogenous  zones,  which  act  as  dams  for  the  later  sexual 
activity.  The  anal  zone  is  one  of  the  components  of  the 
sexual  impulse  which,  though  active  in  infancy,  falls  into 
disuse  in  the  course  of  development,  for  our  present  cul- 
tural life  does  not  use  it  for  sexual  purposes.  It  is  the 
reaction  formation  of  this  zone  that  I  shall  here  discuss. 

In  the  course  of  psychoanalysis  we  come  across  patients 
who  tell  us  that  it  took  them  a  long  time  to  learn  to  con- 
trol their  bowels.  These  patients  recall  that  even  in  the 
later  years  of  childhood  they  occasionally  met  with  acci- 
dents. When  we  investigate  still  further  we  find  that 
they  belonged  to  that  class  of  infants  who  refused  to  empty 
their  bowels  when  placed  on  the  chamber  because  defecation 
caused  them  pleasure.  A  number  of  my  patients  clearly 
recalled  that  even  in  later  years  they  obtained  pleasure 
by  withholding  their  movements,  and  that  they  took  an 
unusual  interest  in  their  fecal  excretions.  Others  remem- 
bered that  they  refused  to  move  their  bowels  because 
they  did  not  wish  to  go  to  sleep.  This  usually  shows  that 
their  sexual  constitution  brought  along  an  enhanced 
erogenous  feeling  of  the  anal  zone.  As  they  grew  older  all 
these  activities  disappeared,  and  instead  they  manifested 
a  triad  of  qualities  which  were  described  by  Freud  in  his 
article  on  Character  and  Anal  Eroticism.^ 

To  illustrate  this  character  I  shall  cite  the  following  case. 

X.,  forty-four  years  old,  divorced,  a  very  successful  merchant,  was 
referred  to  me  for  treatment  by  Dr.  F.  Peterson.  The  patient  stated 
that  his  present  illness  dated  back  to  his  twentieth  year.  On  exami- 
nation it  was  found  that  he  presented  a  typical  compulsion  neurosis,^ 
and  that  some  of  the  compulsive  ideas  were  as  follows.  When  eating 
soup  he  would  think  it  urine;  when  eating  sausage  he  would  have  to 
think  of  feces.     The  noise  of  an  auto  horn  made  him  think  of  a 


392  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

flatus  or  horse's  flatus,  on  account  of  which  he  gave  up  automobile 
riding.  On  going  to  sleep  he  became  obsessed  by  visions  of  people 
having  movements  of  the  bowels.  A  woman's  mouth  made  him  think 
of  the  rectum,  her  eyes  recalled  the  anus.  Shaking  hands  with  a 
person  recalled  a  man  using  toilet  paper.  Looking  at  big  fat  persons 
would  obsess  him  with  thoughts  of  their  fecal  excrements,  the  size, 
consistency,  etc.  A  person  with  protruding  teeth  would  recall  feces 
protruding  from  the  anus.     The  moon  constantly  recalled  the  rectum. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  dozens  of  similar  com- 
pulsive ideas  which  forever  obsessed  him.  Besides  the 
obsessions  he  suffered  from  chronic  constipation  and  from 
many  other  somatic  disturbances. 

On  hearing  this  voluminous  skatological  story  I  natu- 
rally thought  of  anal  eroticism,  and  the  more  I  became 
acquainted  with  my  patient  the  completer  the  picture 
became. 

Now  Freud  describes  the  persons  showing  repressed  anal 
eroticism  as  especially  orderly,  economical,  and  obstinate. 
Every  one  of  these  terms  embraces  a  small  group  or  series 
of  allied  characteristic  features.  Thus  orderly  includes 
actual  physical  cleanliness  as  well  as  scrupulosity  in  little 
things;  its  opposite  would  be  disorder  and  negligence. 
Economy  may  shade  into  avariciousness;  obstinacy  may 
lead  to  spite  and  to  a  tendency  for  violence  and  revengeful 
acts.  It  is  the  last  two — economy  and  obstinacy — that 
hang  most  firmly  together,  and  are  most  constantly  encoun- 
tered, though  the  third  is  often  found  in  the  same  person. 

X.  dressed  and  looked  very  neat  and  gentlemanly.  He 
was  very  conventional,  moved  in  very  good  circles,  and 
tried  to  make  the  impression  that  he  was  very  particular 
about  society  matters.  Thus,  he  often  referred  to  his 
friend  as  not  a  gentleman  because  he  would  not  always 


ANAL    EROTICISM    AND    CHARACTER  393 

put  on  evening  dress  for  theater.  The  sHghtest  infraction 
of  the  general  rule  offended  him.  He  lived  in  the  best 
hotels  and  belonged  to  some  very  fine  clubs.  From  his 
history  I  found  that  he  was  extremely  self  willed  and 
obstinate.  He  hated  all  his  brothers  because  they  claimed 
that  he  thought  he  knew  it  all,  and  he  would  give  me 
many  instances  to  show  that  he  really  was  superior  to 
them.  This  characteristic  was  not  only  apparent  in 
his  dealings  with  his  family,  but  with  everyone  else  includ- 
ing his  doctors.  He  consulted  physicians  in  almost  every 
principal  city  of  the  U.  S.  and  abroad  and  spoke  dis- 
paragingly of  all.  He  had  also  been  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist and  a  New  Thoughter,  but  as  these  cults  did  not  benefit 
him  he  put  them  on  the  same  level  with  the  doctors.  It  was 
often  very  amusing  to  hear  him  speak  of  doctors  I  knew, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  that  I  fare  no  better  when  he  talks 
to  others.  His  obstinacy  and  revenge  led  him  to  enter 
into  commercial  competition  with  his  own  brothers,  and 
when  his  older  brother  implored  his  help  and  threatened 
to  blow  out  his  own  brains  because  of  financial  ruin  he 
not  only  refused  to  assist  him,  but  said  to  him:  "Not  a 
cent!  Shoot  yourself;  do  you  remember  how  you  treated 
me?"  (revenge  and  spite). 

As  an  illustration  of  his  financial  dealings  I  shall  cite 
an  experience  I  had  with  him.  As  I  said  above  he  was 
Dr.  Peterson's  patient,  and  I  first  saw  him  in  Dr.  P.'s 
office.  He  became  unusually  friendly,  and  as  soon  as  an 
opportunity  presented  itself  he  proposed  that  if  I  charge 
him  less  for  the  treatment  he  would  leave  Dr.  P.  and  come 
to  me.  I  told  him  politely  that  I  could  not  think  of  enter- 
taining such  a  proposition,  and  that  things  would  have  to 


394  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

remain  as  they  were.  A  few  weeks  later  he  saw  P.  unknown 
to  me,  and  told  him  that  he  was  poor  and  unable  to  con- 
tinue with  the  treatment  unless  his  fees  were  reduced. 
Dr.  P.,  not  knowing  the  true  circumstances,  reduced  his 
fee  50  per  cent.  That  same  week  he  invested  many  thou- 
sands in  a  new  business  venture  in  New  York  City.  More 
than  this,  when  his  bill  was  sent  him  at  the  end  of  the 
month  he  sent  a  check  for  about  one-tenth  of  the  amount 
on  account.  For  about  two  years  after  the  treatment 
ceased  he  still  kept  on  sending  us  small  amounts  from 
time  to  time,  finally  all  payments  stopped,  and  when  Dr.  P. 
urged  him  to  settle  his  account  he  wrote  him  a  letter  threat- 
ening to  report  him  to  the  higher  medical  authorities  for 
"splitting  fees"  with  me.  For  some  reason,  probably  to 
avoid  notoriety  Dr.  P.  would  not  permit  me  to  sue  him.  I 
may  here  mention  that  he  is  a  very  wealthy  man  and  owns 
large  interests  in  a  number  of  big  commercial  houses.  His 
dealings  with  other  people  were  of  a  similar  nature.  Thus, 
I  prescribed  some  medicine  for  him  and  he  then  com- 
plained that  the  druggist  was  a  highway  robber.  He  lost 
the  friendship  of  many  people  because  of  his  stinginess.  I 
have  this  from  his  own  account.  In  fine  he  was  what 
people  would  call  a  miser,  though  to  all  appearances  he 
looked  like  a  generous  gentleman.  As  a  business  man  he 
was  a  great  success  because,  as  he  said,  "I  knew  how  to 
manage  things,  and  I  could  always  be  relied  upon." 

The  extreme  neatness,  orderliness,  and  miserliness  in 
our  patient  are  nothing  but  reaction  formations  against 
the  unconscious  interest  in  the  not  neat  or  dirty  which  is 
not  a  part  of  the  body. 

During  the  analysis  I  found  that  as  a  child  the  patient 


ANAL    EROTICISM    AND    CHARACTER  395 

had  a  hard  time  to  control  his  rectum.  He  was  punished 
and  jeered  for  regularly  soiling  himself  up  to  his  sixth 
year.  At  nine  years  he  was  sent  home  from  school  in 
disgrace  because  he  broke  wind  in  the  class  room.  This 
was  recalled  under  marked  emotivity.  He  stated  that 
it  was  a  mixed  class  of  boys  and  girls  which  made  it  still 
harder  to  bear.  The  following  year  he  met  with  another 
accident  while  following  a  parade.  He  received  a  rather 
severe  spanking  for  it  because  he  had  on  a  new  white  suit. 
The  patient  also  recalled  that  as  early  as  in  his  fifth  year 
he  had  the  habit  of  sticking  his  finger  into  his  rectum,  a 
habit  which  he  continued  for  years. 

Whether  he  was  one  of  these  infants  who  held  back  his 
stools  I  could  not  discover,  but  as  far  as  his  memory 
reached  there  was  an  extreme  interest  for  feces  and  for 
the  gluteal  region. 

It  is  not  simple  to  connect  the  interest  in  defecation 
with  obstinacy  but  we  must  remember  that  even  infants 
can  be  self  willed  when  put  on  the  chamber,  and  that 
painful  irritations  of  the  skin  connected  with  the  anal 
zone  (spanking)  are  utilized  to  break  a  child's  obstinacy. 
We  all  know  that  when  people  wish  to  express  spite  or 
spiteful  mocking  they  invite  people  to  kiss  their  behind, 
which  points  to  a  repressed  pleasure.  As  a  child  our 
patient  was  very  often  spanked  not  only  by  his  parents 
but  by  his  older  brother.  One  incident  which  he  espe- 
cially remembered  was  a  very  brutal  treatment  by  his 
older  brother. 

The  relation  between  defecation  and  money  though 
seemingly  remote  still  shows  a  definite  connection.  Some 
of  you  know  that  the  most  obstinate  cases  of  constipation 


396  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

can  be  cured  by  psychoanalysis.  Of  course  they  can  also 
be  cured  by  other  means  such  as  hypnotism,  but  by 
psychoanalysis  they  can  be  cured  only  after  the  money 
complex  of  the  patient  has  been  thoroughly  thrashed  out 
and  brought  to  consciousness.  We  know  that  misers  are 
called  filthy  (filthy  lucre),  and  that  in  mythology,  fairy 
tales,  superstitions,  and  dreams  money  is  intimately 
connected  with  feces  (goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg). 
In  his  work  "El  Bachiller  de  Salamanca,"  Le  Sage  gives 
the  dream  of  Zador  of  Vera  Cruz  in  which  the  latter  made  a 
compact  with  his  satanic  majesty  whereby  in  exchange 
for  Zador's  soul  the  devil  discloses  to  him  a  gold  mine  in  a 
graveyard  from  which  the  poor  dupe  extracts  enough 
for  his  present  needs,  only  to  be  awakened  by  his  angry 
wife  to  the  mortifying  consciousness  that  he  has  defiled 
his  own  bed.  In  the  old  Babylonian  writings  gold  is  the 
dung  of  hell.^  It  is  also  probable  that  the  contrast  between 
the  most  valuable  that  man  has  learned  to  know  and  the 
least  valuable  which  he  ejects  as  refuse  has  formed  the 
identification.  This  identification  is  also  strengthened  by 
the  fact  that  when  the  erotic  interest  in  defecation  ceases  the 
interest  in  money,  which  was  lacking  during  childhood, 
begins.  The  yellow  color  which  is  common  to  gold  and 
feces  probably  forms  another  association. 

It  may  also  be  mentioned  that  the  triad  of  qualities  are 
not  found  in  those  persons  who  retain  the  anus  as  an 
erogenous  zone;  e.g.,  homosexual  pederasts.  Those  whom 
I  know  are  all  very  generous  indeed.  The  treatment 
of  X.  had  to  be  stopped  on  account  of  his  money  complex 
at  the  end  of  about  two  months,  although  he  admitted 
that  he  was  much  benefited  by  the  analysis.     When  he 


ANAL    EROTICISM    AND    CHARACTER  397 

first  came  for  treatment  he  was  so  annoyed  by  the  obsession 
caused  by  the  noise  of  auto  horns  that  he  promised  me 
75  per  cent  of  his  income  if  I  rid  him  of  it.  After  a  few 
weeks'  analysis  this  and  some  other  obsessions  were  re- 
moved. He  was  very  pleased  and  surprised  and  thought 
it  was  miraculous,  but  notwithstanding  all  this  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  pay  a  moderate  fee  for  his  treatment. 
As  far  as  I  have  gone  the  analysis  showed  an  accentuation 
of  the  anal  zone  in  infancy,  a  retarded  repression  with  its 
reaction  formation,  as  shown  by  his  character,  and  then  a 
failure  of  the  repression  at  the  age  of  20  years  with  a  nega- 
tive revival  of  the  anal  activity  in  the  form  of  the  skatolog- 
ical  obsessions. 

Case  II. — D.,  thirty  years  old,  suffered  for  years  from  a  compulsion 
neurosis,  which  manifested  itself  in  obsessions,  doubts  and  phobias. 
To  save  time  I  shall  merely  state  that  he  soiled  himself  up  to  the  age  of 
three  years,  and  from  his  mother's  account  he  was  almost  never  free 
from  bowel  trouble  until  the  age  of  five  years.  The  neurosis  mani- 
fested itself  at  fifteen  years,  and  besides  many  obsessive  thoughts  he 
was  also  troubled  by  an  obsessive  act.  He  could  not  resist  the  impulse 
to  rub  his  feces  on  walls,  and  at  times  on  his  body.  D  stated  that 
he  had  the  habit  of  holding  back  his  bowels  because  it  gave  him  a 
distinct  feehng  of  pleasure  and  stimulated  his  mental  activity.  When- 
ever he  was  confronted  with  a  difficult  task  he  "practised  constipa- 
tion." As  an  example  he  gave  the  following  episode.  As  a  reporter 
for  a  newspaper  he  was  sent  to  observe  and  report  the  manoeuvres  of 
the  National  Guard.  He  was  very  anxious  to  write  nice  reports  and 
to  accomplish  this  he  would  hold  back  his  movements  for  two  to 
three  days  until  it  became  almost  unbearable,  and  he  would  then 
imagine  himself  on  the  battle  field  of  Waterloo  and  describe  what  he 
saw.  Here,  too,  the  anal  activities  were  the  result  of  a  failure  in  the 
repression  of  an  enhanced  zone.* 

*I  have  recently  learned  from  this  patient's  mother  that  as  an  infant 
he  very  often  held  back  his  stools.  He  suffered  from  chronic  con- 
stipation because  he  almost  always  interrupted  the  act  of  defecation. 


398  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

But  it  often  happens  that  in  addition  to  an  erogenous 
zone  there  is  also  a  revival  of  one  or  more  of  the  partial 
impulses.  Whenever  this  occurs  the  symptoms  usually 
show  a  corresponding  combination.  The  following  will 
serve  as  an  illustration. 

Case  III. — B.,  thirty-nine  years  old,  suffered  from  a  compulsion 
neurosis.  He  was  obsessed  with  doubts  and  phobias  v/hich  referred 
to  definite  ideas  about  people  being  killed.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  give  here  a  description  of  this  very  interesting  case  which  I  hope  to 
report  in  full  at  some  future  date.  I  simply  msh  to  state  that  he 
too,  showed  an  enhanced  anal  activity  in  infantile  life,  although  not 
nearly  so  marked  as  in  the  other  cases.  But  the  most  prominent 
factor  in  his  infantile  sexuality  was  the  component  of  cruelty.  B. 
was  taught  to  use  firearms  at  a  very  early  age.  His  greatest  pleasure 
up  to  the  age  of  nine  to  ten  years  was  shooting  birds,  squirrels  and 
rabbits.  At  the  age  of  puberty  he  became  very  sympathetic,  and 
one  day  after  shooting  a  squirrel  he  suddenly  experienced  feelings  of 
compassion  and  remorse.  Since  then  he  found  it  very  hard  to  go  out 
shooting.  When  his  neurosis  developed  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years 
he  also  began  to  suffer  from  constipation  which  continued  ever  since 
for  fifteen  years.  No  medication  would  relieve  him  until  he  acci- 
dentally discovered  that  the  following  process  gave  him  a  movement  of 
the  bowels.  He  once  played  with  a  spool  of  cotton  upon  which  was  a 
picture  of  a  child.  He  rolled  it  and  when  the  child's  picture  came 
his  way  he  stuck  a  pin  into  it.  After  five  minutes  of  such  play  he 
would  have  a  movement.  He  then  resorted  to  this  practice  which 
he  modified  from  time  to  time  until  he  was  cured.  He  carried  a 
number  of  long  pins  which  he  sharpened  from  time  to  time,  and  every 
morning  he  drew  a  picture  of  a  girl  and  thrust  the  pins  into  the  region 
of  the  heart.  When  he  was  very  busy  he  could  simply  draw  a  target 
on  paper  and  throw  his  pen  at  it  imagining  that  it  was  a  girl.  As 
the  years  went  by  he  resorted  to  many  other  variations.  Thus 
when  he  hved  in  the  country  he  would  shoulder  his  rifle  and  go  out 
into  the  garden,  and  by  imagining  that  he  was  shooting  Indians  his 
bowels  were  soon  stimulated  to  activity.  Sometimes  he  imagined 
himself  fighting,  which  gave  the  same  result.  On  one  occasion  while 
throwing  his  pins  at  a  picture  one  of  them  fell  through  the  window 


i 


ANAL    EROTICISM    AND    CHARACTER  399 

into  the  garden,  and  as  children  were  wont  to  play  there,  he  soon 
became  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  one  of  the  children  might  swallow 
the  pin  and  die.  This  was  the  first  obsession  of  this  kind  and  it  con- 
tinued in  different  forms. 

All  these  patients  showed  a  special  interest  in  their  anal 
activities  in  childhood  and  in  adult  life.  Later  when  the 
infantile  activities  of  the  anal  zone  remained  in  a  state  of 
repression  they  belonged  to  that  class  of  persons  who  pro- 
long the  act  of  defecation  by  reading  books  and  newspapers 
in  the  water-closet.  Thus  X.  referred  to  the  water-closet  as 
his  library.  With  the  onset  of  the  neurosis  which  signified 
a  failure  of  repression,  the  originally  enhanced  anal  activi- 
ties came  to  the  surface  in  the  form  of  symptoms;  i.e.,  the 
neurosis  represented  the  negative  of  the  perversion. 

The  analyses  of  these  as  well  as  of  a  number  of  other 
cases  fully  corroborate  Freud's  formula;  viz.,  that  the 
permanent  distinguishing  traits  of  a  person  are  either 
unchanged  continuations  of  the  original  impulses,  sub- 
liminations  of  the  same,  or  reactions  formed  against  them. 

References 

1.  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre,  2d  Series,  p.  132. 

2.  Cf.  Chap.  IV. 

3.  Freud:  Anal  Erotic,  I.  c.  see  also:  Ferenczi  Contributions  to 
Psychoanaljrsis,  Chap.  XIII,  1916,  and  Jones,  Papers  on  Psycho- 
analysis Chap.  XL.  BailUer,TindalandCox,  London,1918.  WiUiam 
Wood  &  Co.,  New  York. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  WIT 

Its  Relation  to  the  Dream  and  Unconscious 

When  we  examine  the  Hterature  on  wit  from  Aristotle 
to  our  present  time,  we  are  struck  by  the  fact  that  despite 
the  universality  of  wit  comparatively  little  has  been  written 
on  the  subject,  and  that  although  many  excellent  theories 
have  been  advanced,  notably  by  Jean  Paul,  Theodore 
Vischer,  and  Fischer,  none  of  these  authors  has  gone 
deeply  enough  into  the  subject. 

Without  entering  into  detailed  descriptions  I  shall  simply 
state  that  the  characteristic  qualities  of  wit  as  given  by 
the  most  prominent  authors  are  the  following:  activity, 
the  relation  of  the  content  of  wit  to  our  thoughts,  the 
character  of  the  playing  judgment,  the  union  of  dissimilari- 
ties, contrasting  ideas,  sense  in  nonsense,  the  succession 
of  confusion  and  clearness,  the  sudden  emergence  of  the 
hidden,  and  the  peculiar  kind  of  brevity. 

On  close  examination  it  can  be  readily  seen  that  these 
qualities,  though  readily  demonstrable  by  many  examples 
of  wit,  represent  only  isolated  fragments,  and  give  us  little 
information  about  the  deeper  psychological  mechanisms 
of  wit.  Indeed  no  author  thoroughly  explains  the  indi- 
vidual determinants  of  wit.  Also  the  divisions  of  wit 
are  based  by  some  authors  on  the  technical  means,  and 

by  others  on  the  usage  of  wit  in  speech.     The  reason  for  all 

400 


freud's  theory  of  wit  401 

these  diversities  and  discrepancies  is  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Freud,  no  author  penetrated  deeply  enough  into 
the  subject.  Here,  as  in  many  other  branches  of  normal 
and  abnormal  psychology  Freud  pushed  on  when  the  others 
have  stopped,  and  in  his  book,  "  Wit  and  Its  Relation  to  the 
Unconscious,"^  he  solves  the  riddle  of  wit  as  he  solved  the 
riddle  of  the  neuroses  and  psychoses. 

Following  Freud  I  have  divided  this  paper  into  the 
analytical,  synthetical,  and  theoretical  parts. 

THE  TECHNIQUE  OF  WIT 

Disraeli  once  remarked  that  old  persons  are  apt  to 
fall  into  "anecdotage."  The  word  anecdotage,  though  in 
itself  incomprehensible,  can  be  readily  analysed  to  show 
its  original  full  sense;  and  on  analysis  we  find  that  it  is 
made  up  of  two  words,  anecdote  and  dotage.  That  is, 
instead  of  saying  that  old  persons  are  apt  to  fall  into 
dotage,  and  that  old  persons  are  fond  of  telling  anecdotes, 
Disraeli  fuses  the  two  words  together  forming  a  neologism, 
anecdotage,  and  thus  simultaneously  expresses  both  ideas. 
The  technique,  therefore,  hes  in  the  fusion  of  the  two 
words.  Such  a  fusion  of  words  as  shown  in  the  analysis 
of  dreams,  is  called  condensation.  Condensation  is  not  a 
simple  composition  formed  by  the  joining  of  the  two  words; 
there  is  a  substitutive  formation,  i.e.,  instead  of  anecdote  and 
dotage  we  get  anecdotage. 

In  a  short  story  that  I  have  recently  read,  one  of  the 
characters,  a  "sport,"  speaks  of  the  Christmas  season  as 
the  alcoholidays.  By  reduction  it  can  be  easily  seen  that 
we  have  here  a  compound  word,  a  combination  of  alcohol 

26 


402  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

and   holidays,   which   can   be   graphically  represented   as 
follows: 

alcoHOL 
HOLidays 

ALCOHOLIDAYS 

Here  the  condensation  expresses  the  idea  that  holidays 
are  conducive  to  alcoholic  indulgence.  In  other  words, 
we  have  here  a  fused  word,  which,  though  strange  in 
appearance,  can  be  easily  understood  in  its  proper  con- 
text. This  witticism  may  be  described  as  a  condensation 
with  substitution. 

The  same  mechanism  is  found  in  the  following:  A 
dramatic  critic  summarizing  three  paragraphs  to  the 
effect  that  most  plays  that  have  been  produced  in  New  York 
City  ten  years  ago  were  violent,  emotional  and  hysterical, 
remarks,  "  Thespis  has  taken  up  his  home  in  Dramatteawan." 
The  substitution  not  only  expresses  the  critic's  idea  that 
most  of  the  plays  then  produced  in  this  city  were  violent, 
emotional,  and  hysterical,  that  is  insane,  but  it  also  contains 
a  clever  allusion  to  the  nature  of  the  problems  presented 
by  most  of  these  plays.  Matteawan  is  a  state  hospital  for 
criminal  insane.  Most  of  the  plays  were  not  only  insane 
but  also  criminal,  since  they  treated  of  murders,  divorces, 
robberies,  scandals,  etc. 

A  jest  which  not  long  ago  went  the  rounds  in  Europe 
referred  to  the  late  King  Leopold  as  Cleopold  on  account 
of  his  attachment  to  an  actress  whose  first  name  was  Cleo. 
This  scandalous  allusion  is  here  produced  by  the  addition 
of  a  single  letter.^ 

The  examples  thus  far  described  come  under  the  group 


freud's  theory  of  wit  403 

of  substitutive  formation  (Ersatzbildung).  Brevity,  which 
Shakespeare  calls  the  soul  of  wit,^  is  common  to  them  all; 
but  brevity  alone  is  not  wit,  else  every  laconism  would  be 
wit;  it  must  be  a  special  kind  of  brevity.  Investigation 
shows  that  the  brevity  of  the  joke  is  often  due  to  a  special 
process  which  leaves  its  definite  mark  in  the  wording  of  the 
wit.  This  is  the  process  of  substitutive  formation.  If  we 
apply  the  process  of  reduction  to  the  wit,  we  find  that  wit 
depends  solely  on  the  verbal  expression  produced  by  the 
process  of  condensation.  As  yet,  however,  we  do  not 
understand  how  the  process  of  condensation  produces  the 
most  valuable  part  of  wit,  namely,  the  resultant  pleasure 
(Lustgewinn). 

Condensation  not  only  plays  a  part  in  wit,  but  also  in 
dreams.  We  have  seen  that  the  dream  is  divided  into  the 
manifest  and  the  latent  thoughts.^  The  latent  thoughts 
are  the  actual  thoughts  underlying  the  dream,  while  the 
manifest  thoughts,  which  are  usually  absurd  and  in  appear- 
ance meaningless,  are  those  which  are  recalled  by  the 
dreamer  on  awakening.  The  dream-work  is  the  name 
given  to  the  psychic  processes  which  are  responsible  for 
the  transformation  of  the  latent  into  the  manifest  thoughts 
of  the  dream,  and  condensation  may  be  named  as  one  of 
these  processes.  Words,  pictures,  ideas,  and  events  are 
all  subject  to  the  process  of  condensation.  It  may  produce 
composite  pictures  resembling  one  object  or  person  up  to  a 
certain  ingredient  or  variation  which  is  drawn  from  another 
source.  Thus  one  of  my  patients  saw  in  her  dream  a  crea- 
ture resembling  a  centaur.  She  soon  recognized  the  head  as 
that  of  a  male  acquaintance,  but  the  body,  which  was  that 
of  a  horse,  presented  here  a  sexual  symbolism.^ 


404  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

From  word  condensation  we  shall  now  turn  to  thought 
condensation,  and  to  illustrate  this  form  the  following 
witticism  may  be  cited.  A  corporal  shouts  to  his  recruits 
during  drill,  "Keep  it  up,  hoys;  courage  and  perseverance 
bring  everything;  the  egg  of  Columbus  was  not  laid  in 
a  day." 

This  jest  is  formed  by  the  condensation  of  two  separate 
items — the  saying,  "Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,"  and 
the  anecdote  of  the  egg  of  Columbus.  What  the  corporal 
meant  to  say  was,  "All  that  you  boys  need  is  practice;  it 
is  as  simple  as  it  was  for  Columbus  to  stand  the  egg  on  end; 
don't  be  discouraged,  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day."  He 
fused  these  two  ideas,  however,  and  thus  produced  the 
substitutive  formation,  "the  egg  of  Columbus  was  not 
laid  in  a  day,"  which  on  account  of  its  absurdity  and 
incongruity  carries  the  wit  of  the  jest.  Similar  mechan- 
isms are  found  in  dreams,  but  before  continuing  with  our 
investigation  of  the  analogies  between  the  mechanism 
of  wit  and  of  the  dream,  we  will  examine  the  other  proc- 
esses producing  wit. 

Hood  once  remarked  that  he  had  to  be  a  lively  Hood  for 
a  livelihood.  As  here  can  be  readily  seen  the  technique 
of  this  witticism  is  no  longer  condensation  with  substitu- 
tive formation,  as  it  shows  neither  an  omission  nor 
an  abbreviation.  The  thought  is  fully  expressed  as  the 
speaker  intended  it.  "I  have  to  be  a  lively  Hood  for  a 
livelihood."  What,  then,  is  the  technique  of  this  witti- 
cism? If  we  apply  our  method  of  reduction  we  find  that 
the  wit  remains  intact  as  long  as  we  preserve  the  name, 
but  that  as  soon  as  we  replace  it  by  another  name,  let 
us  say  Brown,  every  trace  of  wit  disappears.     This  points 


freud's  theory  of  wit         405 

to  the  fact  that  the  wit  lies  in  a  twofold  application  of  the 
name,  first  by  itself,  and  then  as  a  suJSix. 

I  recall  an  excellent  Italian  jeu  d' esprit  of  a  like  nature. 
At  a  court  ball,  in  Italy,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  brusquely 
remarked  to  a  very  brilliant  lady,  "  Tutti  gli  Italiani  dan- 
zano  si  male"  (all  Italians  dance  so  badly),  to  which  she 
quickly  replied,  "Nan  tutti  ma  huona  parte"  (Buonaparte). 
The  lady's  answer  has  a  double  meaning;  it  may  mean, 
"Not  all,  but  a  great  many"  (buona  parte);  or  the  words 
"buona  parte"  may  be  read  as  one  word  and  then  her 
answer  has  a  totally  different  significance.  It  becomes  a 
sharp  retort  to  Napoleon  Buonaparte's  insulting  remark, 
"Not  all  Italians  dance  badly,  but  Buonaparte  does." 
The  wit  here  lies  in  the  double  application  of  the  name, 
first  as  a  whole  and  then  divided  in  syllables  like  a  charade, 
thus, 

buona  parte 
Buonaparte 

The  twofold  application  of  the  same  words,  once  as  a 
whole  and  once  divided  into  syllables,  is  not  the  only 
technique  differing  from  the  technique  of  condensation. 
There  are  a  great  many  other  ways  in  which  the  same  word 
or  words  may  be  used  in  order  to  serve  as  a  technical 
means  of  wit.  A  witty  jest  may  be  produced  by  using 
the  same  words  a  second  time,  only  slightly  changed  in 
their  order.  The  slighter  the  change  the  better  the 
technique.     The  following  will  illustrate  the  point: 

At  a  hall  in  Washington  a  finished  coquette  gave  Senator 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  her  fan  to  hold,  and  asked  him  if  he 
could  flirt  a  fan.  ^^No,"  he  replied,  "  hut  I  can  fan  a  flirt." 
(New   York    Tijnes,   March    13,    1910.)     This   witty   jest 


406  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

was  produced  by  merely  changing  the  order  of  the  words 
"flirt  fan"  to  "fan  flirt."  It  may  also  be  taken  as  a  good 
example  of  repartee. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  said,  ''Put  not  your  trust  in 
[money,  hut  put  your  money  in  trust.'^  Here,  too,  the  witti- 
'cism,  depends  mostly  on  the  transposition  of  the  same 
words. 

The  manifold  application  of  the  same  material  can  be 
greatly  extended  if  the  word  or  words  carrying  the  wit  are 
used  first  in  one  form  and  then  shghtly  modified.  Thus, 
the  old  classical  saying,  "Amantes  Amentes''  (lovers, 
lunatics)  is  an  excellent  example  of  this  subgroup.  The 
striking  similarity  between  the  two  words  serves  to  illustrate 
the  close  resemblance  between  love  and  insanity. 

Some  words  lose  their  full  meaning  when  used  in  certain 
connections,  as  shown  in  the  following  examples.  Some- 
body observed  to  the  younger  Charles  Mathews  that  bUnd 
persons  generally  appear  contented,  and  concluded  by 
asking,  "How  can  the  blind  be  happy  f  "I  suppose/' 
replied  Mathews,  "they  see  no  reason  why  they  shouldn't.'^ 
This  depends  entirely  on  the  word  sqe  in  the  last  sentence, 
where  it  has  no  longer  the  full  meaning  of  seeing,  but  an 
idiomatic  significance  equivalent  to  knowing. 

The  technique  of  wit  based  on  double  meaning  forms 
another  subgroup  of  manifold  appHcation.  Under  this 
heading  we  have  jests  utilizing  the  double  meaning  of  a 
name;  for  example,  "No  more,  Pistol;  I  would  not  have 
you  go  off  here.  Discharge  yourself  of  our  company.  Pistol." 
(Henry  IV,  2.) 

Question:  "Why  have  the  French  rejected  Lohengrin?" 
Answer:  "On  Elsass's  account."^ 


FREUD 'S   THEORY    OF    WIT  407 

We  all  know  that  Cardinal  Merry  Del  Val  has  been 
blamed  for  the  awkward  Roosevelt- Vatican  episode,  and 
the  journals  the  world  over  have  predicted  his  downfall 
as  the  Pope's  Secretary  of  State.  The  following  letter 
written  to  the  New  York  Times,  by  Eva  S.  Rosseau,  sums 
up  this  popular  opinion.  "All  will  be  Merry  when  Del 
says  Val  (e)  to  the  Vatican." 

The  following  may  be  cited  as  other  examples  of  double 
meaning.  "That  Mighty  Pen.  The  superiority  of  man 
to  nature  is  continually  illustrated.  Nature  needs  an  im- 
mense quantity  of  quills  to  make  a  goose  with,  but  a  man 
can  make  a  goose  of  himself  with  one."  (Christian 
Register. ) 

Here  the  wit  depends  entirely  on  the  double  meaning 
of  the  words  goose  and  quill,  which  are  first  used  in  their 
original  literal  sense  and  then  metaphorically.  Double 
meaning  may  also  be  produced  by  play  upon  words. 
Here  no  violence  is  done  to  the  word,  it  is  not  torn  into 
syllables,  nor  does  the  word  undergo  any  modification. 

Example:  Hostess  to  her  guests:  "Make  yourselves  at 
home;  I  always  like  my  guests  to  be  at  home."  The  wit  is  here 
produced  by  the  play  upon  the  words  at  home: 

A  physician,  leaving  the  sick  bed  of  a  wife,  remarked 
to  the  husband,  "7  don't  like  her  looks."  "I  haven't  liked 
her  looks  for  some  time,"  was  the  quick  rejoinder  of  the 
husband.''  The  physician  naturally  referred  to  the  condition 
of  the  wife,  but  he  expressed  his  apprehension  in  such 
words  as  to  afford  the  husband  the  means  of  utihzing  them 
to  assert  his  conjugal  aversion. 

There  is  one  thing  that  strikes  us  when  we  examine  the 
various  groups  described  above;  they  all  show  a  simple 


408  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

and  distinct  resemblance;  they  are  all  special  forms  of 
condensation.  Thus  the  manifold  application  of  the  same 
material  is  nothing  but  a  form  of  condensation,  while  the 
play  upon  words  is  merely  a  condensation  without  sub- 
stitutive formation.  In  other  words,  all  the  techniques 
mentioned  above  have  one  characteristic,  namely,  they 
all  show  a  tendency  toward  economy  of  expression.  But, 
as  was  said  above,  we  must  remember  that  not  every  tend- 
ency to  economize  expression  is  witty.  It  must  possess  a 
special  form  of  economy,  upon  which  the  efficiency  of  the 
wit  depends.  But  before  discussing  the  question  whether 
the  economy  mentioned  is  not  counterbalanced  by  the 
expenditure  of  intellectual  effort  entailed  in  the  formation 
of  such  expression,  and  the  question  who  is  the  gainer  by 
this  economy,  we  will  briefly  consider  puns. 

Puns  belong  to  the  lowest  form  of  wit.  They  can  be 
formed  with  very  Httle  effort.  A  mere  similarity  between 
two  words  is  enough  to  recall  the  relationship  between  the 
two  meanings.  Puns  may  be  formed  by  a  similarity  of 
structure,  sound,  or  initial  letters.  Fischer  defines  the 
pun  as  a  bad  play  on  words,  because  it  does  not  play  with 
the  word  as  a  word,  but  merely  as  a  sound.  If  we  elimi- 
nate from  the  pun  the  manifold  application  of  the  same 
material,  we  find  that  the  emphasis  lies  on  the  concurrence 
of  the  two  words  serving  to  make  the  pun;  this  is  only  a 
subgroup  of  play  upon  words.  The  following  will  serve 
as  illustrations. 

The  heading  of  a  poetry  column  in  a  daily  journal  reads, 
"Verse  and  Worse." 

At  a  gathering  someone  spoke  disparagingly  of  a  certain 
drama,  and  wound  up  by  saying,  ''It  was  so  poor  that  the 


freud's  theory  of  wit         409 

first  act  had  to  be  rewritten,"  "And  now  it  is  re-rotten" 
added  the  punster  of  the  gathering. 

In  both  examples  the  play  is  upon  the  words,  not  as 
words,  but  as  sounds. 

From  the  technique  of  witty  words,  which  we  have  con- 
sidered exclusively  so  far,  we  will  now  turn  to  the  technique 
of  witty  thoughts,  and  by  way  of  introduction  the  follow- 
ing examples  will  be  examined. 

Two  Jews  meet  near  a  bathing  establishment.  "Have 
you  taken  a  bath?"  asked  one.  "How  is  that/'  answered, 
the  other,  "is  one  missing?"^ 

At  first  sight  it  would  seem  that  the  technique  lies  in 
the  double  meaning  of  the  word  take.  For  in  the  first  case 
the  word  is  used  in  a  colorless  idiomatic  sense,  while  in 
the  second  it  is  the  verb  in  its  full  meaning.  This  would 
be  a  case  where  the  same  word  is  taken  now  in  the  empty 
and  now  in  the  full  sense,  for  the  wit  disappears  if  instead 
of  using  "to  take  a  bath"  we  should  substitute  the  simple 
equivalent  "to  bathe."  But  on  closer  examination  we 
find  that  the  reduction  has  not  been  applied  to  the  right 
place.  For  the  jest  does  not  lie  in  the  question,  but  rather 
in  the  answer,  that  is,  in  the  counter  question,  "How  is 
that,  is  one  missing?"  Provided  the  sense  is  not  destroyed 
this  answer  cannot  be  robbed  of  its  wit  by  any  expansion 
or  variation.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  answer  of  the 
second  Jew  the  overlooking  of  the  bath  is  more  significant 
than  the  misconception  of  the  word  take. 

In  his  distress  a  man  borrowed  money  from  a  wealthy 
acquaintance.^  The  same  day  he  was  discovered  by  his 
creditor  in  a  restaurant  eating  a  dish  of  salmon  with  mayon- 
naise.    The  creditor  reproached  him  in  these  words:  "You 


410  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

borrow  money  of  me  and  then  order  salmon  with  mayonnaise. 
Is  that  what  you  needed  the  money  for?"  "7  don't  quite 
understand  you,"  responded  the  debtor.  "  When  I  have  no 
money  I  cannot  eat  salmon  with  mayonnaise,  when  I  have 
money  I  am  not  allowed  to  eat  it.  Well,  when  can  I  ever  eat 
salmon  with  mayonnaise?" 

Here  we  no  longer  discover  any  double  meaning.  The 
repetition  of  the  words  "salmon  with  mayonnaise"  is  not 
"a  manifold  application"  of  the  same  material,  but  an 
actual,  identical  repetition  required  by  the  content.  It 
may  be  supposed  that  the  striking  thing  about  the  answer 
is  its  logical  character,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  answer 
is  illogical.  The  debtor  endeavors  to  justify  himself  for 
spending  the  borrowed  money  on  luxuries,  and  asks  when 
he  is  to  be  allowed  to  eat  salmon.  But  this  is  not  a  logical 
question;  the  creditor  does  not  blame  him  for  eating 
salmon  on  the  day  that  he  borrows  the  money,  but  reminds 
him  that  in  his  condition  he  has  no  right  to  think  of  such 
luxuries  at  all.  The  poor  bon  vivant  disregards  this  only 
possible  sense  of  the  reproach,  and  answers  about  something 
else,  and  acts  as  though  he  did  not  understand  the  reproach. 
In  other  words,  the  answer  is  deviated  from  the  sense  of  the 
reproach. 

I  could  find  no  examples  as  good  as  these  two  taken 
from  Professor  Freud's  book  to  illustrate  a  new  technique 
of  wit,  namely,  displacement.  In  both  the  examples  men- 
tioned the  technique  lies  in  the  displacement  of  the  psychic 
accent.  The  deviation  is  especially  marked  in  the  bath 
jest.  The  first  says,  "Have  you  taken  a  bath?"  The 
emphasis  lies  on  the  bath  element.  The  second  answers  as 
if  the  question  were,   "Have  you  taken  a  bath?"     The 


freud's  theory  of  wit  411 

displacement  of  the  emphasis  is  made  possible  only  by  the 
wording  "taken  a  bath."  The  displacement  would  have 
been  impossible  if  the  question  had  been,  "Have  you 
bathed?"  The  witless  answer  would  have  been,  "Bathe? 
What  do  you  mean?  I  don't  know  what  that  means." 
The  technique  of  this  wit  depends  on  the  displacement  of 
the  emphasis,  from  "to  bathe"  to  "to  take." 

Let  us  now  examine  in  what  relation  the  technique  of 
displacement  stands  to  the  expression  of  the  wit.  As 
shown  in  the  second  example  (salmon  with  mayonnaise) 
the  displacement-wit  is  totally  independent  of  the  verbal 
expression.  It  does  not  depend  upon  words,  but  on  the 
streams  of  thought.  The  elimination  of  the  wit  cannot  be 
effected  by  any  substitution  of  words  as  long  as  the  sense 
is  retained.  Reduction  is  only  possible  by  changing  the 
stream  of  thought. 

Another  example  of  pure  displacement  is  the  following: 
A  rather  shahhy-looking  patient  consulted  a  famous  specialist 
about  his  malady.  After  the  doctor  examined  him  and  gave 
his  opinion  he  demanded  ten  dollars,  his  regular  office  fee. 
The  patient  thought  it  vms  too  much,  and  asked  for  a  reduction. 
The  doctor  reduced  his  fee  at  first  to  five  and  then  to  three 
dollars,  hut  the  patient  persisted  that  it  was  still  too  high  a 
fee  for  him  to  pay.  The  doctor  becoming  impatient  exclaimed, 
"If  you  are  so  poor  why  did  you  come  to  me?  You  should 
have  gone  to  a  free  clinic!^'  "Nothing  is  too  expensive  for  my 
health,"  responded  the  patient. 

This  is  certainly  in  general  a  proper  attitude,  but  not  for 
this  patient.  The  answer  would  be  proper  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  wealthy  man  who  pays  his  bills  without 
demurring. 


412  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  analysis  of  these  examples  shows  a  certain  logical 
elaboration  which  serves  to  conceal  a  displacement  of  the 
stream  of  thought.  There  are.  however,  jokes  which, 
instead  of  logic,  display  absurdity  and  nonsense,  as  the 
following  joke. 

A  servant  girl  having  been  dismissed  demands  a  recom- 
mendation from  her  mistress.  The  latter  refuses  to  give 
it,  saying  '^/  cannot  recommend  you,  because  you  have 
not  kept  the  house  clean.  Look  at  the  dust  and  filth  in  these 
corners.^'  ^^ Excuse  me,  madam,^^  replied  the  servant,  "that 
is  not  my  fault;  that  dirt  and  filth  was  there  when  I  came  a 
year  ago." 

The  servant's  answer  is  certainly  absurd  on  its  face; 
she  attempts  to  excuse  her  negligence,  but  succeeds  only 
in  incriminating  herself  the  more.  Still,  on  closer  con- 
sideration, we  find  that  her  answer  is  not  as  foolish  as  it 
appears;  that  this  nonsense  contains  sense  which  turns  the 
nonsense  into  wit.  The  servant  in  giving  this  answer 
makes  herself  appear  foolish  in  order  to  show  her  mistress 
how  foolish  she  herself  is.  The  reduction  is  as  follows: 
"You  blame  me  for  not  keeping  your  house  clean;  you  are 
no  better  housekeeper  yourself.  The  dust  and  filth  were  in 
these  corners  when  I  came  here;  and,  moreover,  what 
kind  of  a  mistress  are  you  to  allow  dirt  and  filth  to  re- 
main in  your  house  for  over  a  year,  and  that,  too,  with 
a  servant  in  the  house!  You  are  very  foolish  to  blame 
me  now." 

The  technique  of  this  joke  consists  in  advancing  some- 
thing apparently  absurd  and  nonsensical,  which,  however, 
Idiscloses  a  sense  serving  to  illustrate  and  represent  some 
(further  actual  absurdity  and  nonsense. 


freud's  theory  of  wit  413 

Besides  the  examples  mentioned  in  the  two  groups, 
namely,  of  displacement  and  absurdity,  we  find  other  forms 
of  wit  showing  faulty  logic.  A  good  example  is  the 
following : 

A  friend  who  had  stopped  in  the  street  to  speak  to  Charles 
Lamb  said  to  him  carelessly  as  they  were  parting,  By  the  way, 
my  dear  fellow,  you  owe  me  half  a  crown.^'  "On  the  contrary,^' 
replied  Lamb,  "it  is  you  who  owe  me  half  a  crown;  for  if  you 
will  remember,  I  asked  you  for  five  shillings,  and  you 
could  not  lend  me  two  and  six."  The  wit  in  this  anecdote 
is  due  to  false  logic.  What  Lamb  says  may  be  true,  but 
it  is  based  on  a  false  premise,  as  he  wrongly  assumes  that 
the  five  shillings  were  his. 

More  typical  examples  of  wit  based  on  faulty  logic  are 
shown  in  the  three  following  Jewish  jokes. 

1.  A  marriage  agent  is  defending  the  girl  he  has  proposed 
against  the  attacks  of  the  prospective  fiance.  "I  don't  like 
the  mother-in-law,"  the  latter  remarks;  "she  is  a  crabbed, 
foolish  person."  "That's  true,  however,  you  are  not  going 
to  marry  the  mother-in-law,  but  the  daughter."  "  Yes,  but 
she  is  no  longer  young,  and  she  isn't  pretty,  either."  "  That's 
nothing;  if  she  isn't  young  and  pretty  you  can  trust  her  all  the 
more."  "But  she  hasn't  much  money."  "Why  talk  of 
money?  Are  you  marrying  money?  Don't  you  want  a 
wife?"  "But  she's  a  hunchback!"  "Well,  what  of  that, 
do  you  expect  her  to  have  no  blemishes  at  allf"^^ 

2.  On  being  introduced  to  his  prospective  bride,  the  young 
man  is  rather  unpleasantly  disappointed,  and  drawing  aside 
the  marriage  agent,  he  reproachfully  whispers  to  him,  "  Why 
have  you  brought  me  here?    She  is  ugly  and  old,  she  squints. 


414  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

has  bad  teeth  and  bleary  eyes!  ..."  You  can  talk  louder,'' 
interposes  the  marriage  agent,  "She^s  deaf,  too."^^ 

3.  The  prospective  bridegroom  makes  his  first  call  on  the 
future  bride  with  the  marriage  agent,  and  while  waiting 
in  the  parlor  for  the  appearance  of  the  family  the  agent  calls 
the  young  man's  attention  to  a  glass  closet  containing  a  hand- 
some silver  set.  *'Just  look  at  these  things,  you  see  how  wealthy 
they  are."  "But  isn't  it  possible,"  asks  the  suspicious  young 
man,  "that  these  nice  things  were  borrowed  for  the  occasion 
in  order  to  give  an  impression  of  wealth?"  "  What  an  idea," 
answered  the  agent,  protestingly ;  "who  do  you  think  would 
lend  them  amjthing?"^'^ 

In  joke  (1)  we  have  a  girl  of  advanced  age,  ugly  and 
deformed  who  has  little  money  and  a  repulsive  mother, 
all  of  which  is  not  very  attractive  to  the  young  man. 
The  marriage  agent  knows  how  to  excuse  each  individual 
fault,  except  the  inexcusable  hunchback,  which  he 
must  cope  with.  The  girl  apparently  has  many  faults 
which  can  be  overlooked,  but  one  from  which  you  cannot 
get  away,  and  which  is  apt  to  hinder  matrimony.  The 
agent  acts  as  if  he  had  removed  every  individual  fault  by 
his  excuses,  forgetting  that  each  leaves  behind  some 
depreciation  which  accumulates.  He  insists  upon  dealing 
with  each  factor  individually,  and  refuses  to  connect  them 
into  a  whole  (sum).  The  entire  joke  shows  a  semblance  of 
logic  characteristic  of  sophism  which  serves  here  to  conceal 
the  false  logic. 

The  fallacy  or  sophism  in  (2)  and  (3)  may  be  designated 
as  automatic.  The  marriage  agent  reacts  a  number  of 
times,  one  after  another,  in  the  same  manner,  and  con- 
tinues in  the  same  manner  on  the  next  occasion  when  it 


freud's  theory  of  wit  415 

becomes  unsuited  and  runs  contrary  to  his  intentions. 
Falling  into  the  automatism  of  habit,  he  fails  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  required  situation.  Thus  the  marriage 
agent  in  the  second  story  is  so  fascinated  by  the  failings 
and  infirmities  of  the  bride-to-be  that  he  completes  the 
list  from  his  own  knowledge,  which  it  was  neither  his 
business  nor  his  intention  to  do.  In  the  third  story  he  is 
so  carried  away  by  his  zeal  to  convince  the  young  man  of 
the  family's  wealth,  that  he  comes  out  with  something 
which  upsets  all  his  efforts.  In  both  examples  the  autom- 
atism triumphs  over  the  appropriate  variation  of  thought 
and  expression. 

The  examples  given  below  take  us  to  another  form  of 
the  technique  of  wit. 

1.  It  is  called  college  commencement  because  the  students 
then  commence  to  forget  what  they  have  hitherto  learned. 

2.  If   the   play    is    good    and    the    star   is    rotten, 
The  author's  famous,  but  the  star  forgotten. 

If  the  star  is  good  and  the  play  is  rotten, 

The  author  gets  something,  the  star  gets  nothin\f 

— Collier's  Irrational  Weakly. 

The  second  example  may  recall  the  group  of  "manifold 
application  of  the  same  material,"  but  in  this  case  as  can 
be  readily  seen,  the  double  meaning  plays  no  part.  The 
important  factors  in  these  examples  depend  on  the 
formation  of  new  and  unexpected  identities,  and  on  the 
production  of  ideas  and  definitions  related  to  each  other 
and  to  a  common  third.  It  is  a  unification.  Unification 
is  also  a  basis  of  the  quick  repartee  in  wit,  for  ready 
repartee  consists  in  using  the  defense  for  aggression,  and 


416  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

in  "turning  the  tables,"  or  "in  paying  with  the  same  coin;" 
that  is,  the  repartee  consisting  in  estabhshing  an  unexpected 
identity  between  the  attack  and  counter  attack.  This 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  following  examples. 

A  lawyer  of  small  stature  came  into  court  to  look  after  his 
clienVs  interests.  His  opponent,  not  knowing  him,  asked 
him  what  he  wanted,  and  on  being  told  who  he  was,  jokingly 
remarked,  ''What?  Such  a  little  lawyer?  Why  I  could 
put  you  into  my  pocket!"  "  You  could,"  tranquilly  responded 
the  former,  "but  then  you  would  have  more  brains  in  your 
pocket  than  in  your  head." 

On  returning  to  Paris  after  crossing  Niagara  Falls,  Blondin 
was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  Alexander  Dumas,  who  was  one 
of  his  many  visitors,  permitted  himself  to  doubt  the  feat, 
upon  which  Blondin  angrily  exclaimed,  '^Well,  M.  Dumas, 
if  you  like,  come  and  walk  with  me  over  the  Falls."  "  With 
pleasure,"  retorted  the  celebrated  author,  "but  only  on  con- 
dition that  I  be  allowed  to  carry  you. 

The  excellent  repartee  in  the  last  anecdote  which  meets 
an  impossible  demand  with  just  as  impossible  a  condition, 
contains  another  technical  moment  which  would  be  absent 
if  the  answer  had  been,  "No,  I  fear  you  will  not  be  able 
to  carry  me."  To  illustrate  this  point  I  will  again  quote 
an  example  from  Freud. 

Frederick  the  Great  heard  of  a  clergyman  who  had  the 
reputation  of  communicating  with  spirits.  He  sent  for 
him  and  received  hirn  with  the  following  question,  "Can 
you  call  up  ghosts?"  The  answer  was,  "At  your  pleasure, 
but  they  won't  come."  Here  it  is  quite  obvious  that  the 
wit  lies  in  the  substitution  for  the  only  answer  possible, 
"No,"  its  opposite.     To  complete  this  substitution,  "but" 


freud's  theory  of  wit  417 

had  to  be  added  to  "yes"  which  gives  the  equivalent  for 
"No." 

Such  representation  through  the  opposite  is  another  form 
of  technique  of  wit.  A  very  pure  example  of  this  form 
is  the  following: 

"  The  woman  resembles  the  Venus  de  Milo  in  many  points; 
like  her  she  is  extraordinarily  old,  and  has  no  teeth,  and  like 
her  she  has  white  spots  on  the  yellow  surface  of  her  body" 
(Heine).  Heine  thus  depicts  ugliness  by  making  it  agree 
with  the  most  beautiful. 

The  following  anecdote  will  serve  as  another  illustration 
of  this  group.  The  great  orator,  Cicero,  once  remarked  to 
a  man  who  told  him  that  his  wife  was  thirty  years  old,  "  That 
is  undoubtedly  true,  since  I  have  heard  it  for  the  last  ten 
years"  What  Cicero  really  meant  was,  "This  cannot 
be  true,  as  I  heard  you  say  the  same  thing  ten  years  ago." 
He  said  just  the  opposite  however,  "that  is  undoubtedly 
true,"  and  if  the  next  sentence  had  read,  "for  I  have  heard 
you  say  this  before,"  it  would  have  merely  reinforced  the 
first.  Instead  it  reads,  "  For  I  have  heard  the  reinforcement 
too  far  and  thus  indicated  the  opposite  of  what  is  expressed 
in  the  first  part.  Cicero  thus  succeeds  in  making  himself 
plain  by  saying  the  opposite  of  what  he  thinks.  But  this 
opposite  is  nothing  but  a  very  striking  outdoing,  which 
forms  another  group  in  the  technique  of  wit. 

Mrs.  A.:  "Can  you  recommend  your  former  servant? 
Does  she  understand  everything  well?"  Mrs.  B.:  ''Oh, 
yes,  she  understands  everything  even  better. 

This  is  a  very  simple  example  of  "outdoing''  wit. 
Instead  of  saying,  "No,"  Mrs.  B,  says  "Yes,"  and  rein- 

27 


418  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

forces  it  with  a  still  stronger  affirmative,  which,  however, 
thus  gives  the  equivalent  for  "No." 

Besides  the  technique  of  expression  through  the  oppo- 
site, wit  is  also  produced  by  expression  through  the  similar 
and  cognate,  or  rather  through  the  homogeneous  and  coher- 
ent.    The  following  story  illustrates  this  group. 

An  Irishman  who  was  expected  to  die  ivas  visited  at  the 
same  time  by  his  priest  and  physician.  After  they  had 
both  performed  their  functions  the  dying  man  turned  to  the 
doctor  and  asked,  '^Doctor,  how  much  will  you  charge  my 
wife  for  your  services  after  I'll  be  gone?"  The  doctor  was 
somewhat  relucani  to  answer,  but  on  being  urged  he  said, 
"I  will  ask  her  for  $100."  Turning  to  the  priest  the  Irishman 
asked  the  same  question,  and  as  he  was  very  insistent  the  priest 
answered  that  he,  too,  would  charge  |100  for  his  services. 
The  Irishman  paused  for  awhile  and  said,  '^Doctor,  will  you 
please  take  hold  of  my  right  arm,  omd  Father,  will  you  please 
take  hold  of  my  left  arm."  When  they  compiled  with  this 
request  he  lay  back  and  said,  '^Now,  I  can  die  like  the 
Lord." 

The  Irishman's  remark  is  quite  plain;  we  deal  with  a 
statement  which  could  not  be  directly  expressed.  The 
indirect  expression  in  this  story  was  produced  in  the 
following  manner.  The  remark,  "Now  I  can  die  like 
the  Lord,"  suggested  that  being  between  the  priest  and 
the  doctor  recalls  the  Saviour  dying  between  the  two 
thieves.  This  involves  the  suggestion  that  the  speaker, 
too,  is  between  two  thieves.  What  he  really  wished  to 
say  was,  "You  are  two  robbers  to  charge  my  wife  SI 00 
each."  This  thought  is  expressed  indirectly  by  means  of 
association  and  in  a  manner  designated  as  allusion.     This 


freud's  theory  of  wit         419 

witticism  is  also  an  excellent  example   of  the  so-called 
grim  humor  (Galgenhumor). 

There  are  other  forms  of  the  technique  of  wit,  but  we 
have  described,  if  only  briefly,  the  most  common  and 
most  important  technical  means.  These  will  help  us 
to  judge  the  psychic  mechanism  and  indicate  the  way 
for  the  future  solutions  of  the  problem.  As  mentioned 
above,  the  interesting  process  of  condensation  with  sub- 
stitution, which  we  have  recognized  as  the  nucleus  of  the 
technique  of*the  wit  of  words,  evinces  the  same  mechanism 
in  the  formation  of  dreams.  The  technique  of  the  wit  of 
thoughts — such  as  displacement,  false  logic,  absurdity, 
indirect  representation,  and  expression  through  the 
opposite — all  these  are  found  also  in  the  technique  of 
dreams.  It  is  displacement  that  gives  the  dream  its 
strange  appearance  and  thus  prevents  us  from  recog- 
nizing in  the  dream  only  a  continuation  of  our  waking 
thoughts.  The  existence  of  the  nonsensical  and  absurd  in 
the  dream  is  the  reason  for  the  belief  that  there  is  a  deterior- 
ation of  the  psychic  activities  in  the  dream,  and  that  the 
dream  shows  neither  reason  nor  logic.  The  popular  saying, 
"Dreams  go  by  contraries,"  shows  well  that  the  idea  of 
expression  through  the  opposite  is  well  known  even  to  the 
laity.  We  also  find  in  the  dream  indirect  expressions  and 
the  other  mechanisms  found  in  wit.  All  of  this  shows 
the  close  resemblance  between  the  techniques  of  the  dream 
and  of  wit,  and  as  will  be  shown  later  this  resemblance 
is  not  at  all  accidental. 

THE  TENDENCIES  OF  WIT 
Following  the  reaction  it  produces,  we  divide  wit  into 
purposeful,  or  that  which  shows  definite  aims,  and  harm- 


420  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

less,  or  that  which  shows  no  particular  aim.  It  is  only 
the  former  that  is  apt  to  be  met  with  resistances  from 
hearers  or  persons  concerned.  There  is  no  relation  what- 
soever between  these  classifications  and  those  mentioned 
above.  A  harmless  joke  may  be  produced  by  witty  words 
or  witty  thoughts,  and  any  of  the  techniques  described 
may  serve  to  produce  a  purposeful  witticism.  Following 
our  theoretical  explanation  of  the  nature  of  wit  we  may 
say  that  the  harmless  wit  is  for  our  purposes  of  greater 
value  than  the  purposeful,  and  that  the  shallow  wit  is  of 
greater  value  than  the  profound.  For  the  harmless  and 
shallow  play  upon  words  presents  to  us  the  problem  of  wit 
in  its  purest  forms,  without  danger  of  confusion  through 
the  introduction  of  the  tendency  factor  and  consequent 
false  judgment.  We  often  laugh  on  hearing  the  most 
ingenuous  and  harmless  joke  where  the  pleasure  experi- 
enced cannot  have  originated  from  the  idea  or  tendency 
of  the  joke;  we  have  then  to  conclude  that  the  pleasurable 
feeling  is  derived  from  the  technique  of  the  wit  alone. 
The  technical  means  of  wit,  such  as  condensation,  dis- 
placement, indirect  expression,  etc.,  have  the  power  of 
producing  in  the  hearer  a  feeling  of  pleasure.  We  cannot, 
however,  as  yet  see  how  they  come  to  possess  that  power. 
This  gives  us  a  new  axiom  for  the  explanation  of  wit,  and 
brings  out  more  sharply  what  has  been  shown  above, 
namely  that  the  character  of  wit  depends  on  the  mode  of 
expression.  For  it  will  be  recalled  that  whenever  it  was 
possible  to  reduce  the  wit  by  substituting  another  expres- 
sion, this  not  only  abrogated  the  character  of  the  wit, 
but  the  laughter-producing  effect,  that  is,  the  pleasure 
of  the  wit.     The  pleasurable  effect  of  the  harmless  wit  is 


freud's  theory  of  wit  421 

usually  moderate;  all  that  the  hearer  can  expect  to  obtain 
from  it  is  a  sense  of  satisfaction  and  a  passing  smile;  and 
even  this  is  partially  due  to  the  idea.  The  sudden 
irresistible  outburst  of  laughter  that  follows  the  tendency 
wit  rarely  follows  the  purposeless  Vvdt.  As  the  technique 
is  the  same  in  both  it  may  be  assumed  that  by  virtue  of 
its  tendencies  the  tendency  wit  has  at  its  disposal  sources 
of  pleasure  to  which  the  harmless  wit  has  no  access. 

Wherever  wit  is  not  harmless  it  serves  two  tendencies: 
it  is  either  a  hostile  joke  serving  as  aggression,  satire, 
or  defense,  or  it  is  an  obscene  joke  serving  as  an  exhibition. 

To  examine  the  way  in  which  wit  serves  these  tendencies 
we  will  first  discuss  the  obscene  or  "smutty"  joke.  By 
a  "smutty"  joke  we  understand  the  bringing  into  promi- 
nence of  sexual  facts  or  relations  through  speech.  How- 
ever, a  lecture  on  the  anatomy  of  the  sexual  organs  or  on 
the  physiology  of  reproduction  need  not  necessarily  have 
anything  in  common  with  the  smutty  joke.  The  smutty 
joke  must  fulfil  the  following  condition.  It  must  be 
directed  toward  a  certain  person  who  excites  one  sexually, 
and  who  becomes  cognizant  of  the  speaker's  excitement  by 
listening  to  the  smutty  joke,  and  thereby  in  turn  becomes 
sexually  excited.  Instead  of  becoming  sexually  excited 
the  listener  may  react  with  shame  and  embarrassment, 
which,  however,  only  shows  a  reaction  against  the  excite- 
ment and  thus  signifies  an  admission  of  the  same.  The 
smutty  joke  was  originally  directed  against  the  woman, 
and  is  comparable  to  an  attempt  at  seduction.  If  a  man 
tells  or  listens  to  smutty  jokes  in  male  society  it  is  because 
the  original  situation  cannot  be  realized  on  account  of  social 
inhibitions.     The  smutty  joke  is  an  exhibition  directed 


422  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

against  a  person  to  whom  one  is  not  sexually  indifferent. 
Through  the  utterance  of  obscene  words  the  person  attacked 
is  incited  to  picture  the  parts  of  the  body  in  question,  and 
is  shown  that  the  aggressor  pictures  the  same  thing. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  original  motive  of  the  smutty 
joke  was  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  sexual  displayed.  As 
shown  in  the  "Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex,  "*' 
one  of  the  primitive  components  of  our  libido  is  the 
desire  to  see  the  sexual  exposed.  It  is  probably  only  a  sub- 
stitution for  the  desire  to  touch  the  sexual,  which  is  assumed 
to  be  the  primary  pleasure.  The  libido  for  looking  and 
touching  is  found  in  every  person  in  two  forms,  active  and 
passive,  or  masculine  and  feminine;  and  in  accordance  with 
the  preponderance  of  the  sex  characteristics  it  develops 
preponderately  in  one  or  the  other  direction.  At  least  a 
certain  amount  of  touching  is  indispensable  in  order  to 
attain  the  normal  sexual  aim.  We  all  know  that  touch- 
ing the  skin  of  the  sexual  object  causes  pleasure  and  excite- 
ment. The  same  holds  true  of  looking,  which  is  analogous 
to  touching.  Sexual  excitement  is  frequently  awakened 
by  optical  impressions,  and  selection  taking  account  of 
this  fact  makes  the  sexual  object  a  thing  of  beauty.  The 
covering  of  the  body,  which  is  introduced  by  civilization, 
serves  to  arouse  sexual  curiosity,  and  constantly  strives  to 
supplement  the  sexual  object  by  uncovering  the  hidden 
parts.  This  may  be  turned  into  the  artistic  ("sublima- 
tion") if  the  interest  be  turned  from  the  genitals  to  the 
form  of  the  body.  The  tendency  to  linger  at  the  inter- 
mediary sexual  aim  by  looking  is  found  in  most  normals. 
It  in  a  way  gives  them  the  capability  of  directing  a  certain 
amount  of  their  libido  to  a  higher  artistic  aim.     But  this 


freud's  theory  of  wit  423 

fondness  for  looking  may  become  overestimated  and  fixed, 
and  then  becomes  a  perversion.  We  than  have  the 
so  called  voyeurs  or  "peepers."  The  desire  to  exhibit  is 
readily  observed  in  children,  and  where  this  desire  does  not 
experience  the  sexual  repression  it  develops  into  a  desire 
for  exhibition,  a  common  perversion  in  grown-up  men.  In 
women  the  passive  desire  to  exhibit  is  almost  regularly 
covered  by  the  marked  reaction  of  sexual  modesty; 
despite  this,  however,  remnants  of  the  desire  may  also 
be  seen  in  women's  dress. 

In  a  man  a  great  part  of  this  striving  to  exhibit  remains 
as  a  part  of  the  libido,  and  serves  to  initiate  the  sexual  act. 
If  the  striving  asserts  itself  on  first  meeting  the  woman  it 
manifests  itself  in  speech,  through  which  the  man  makes 
himself  known  to  woman.  By  having  aroused  in  her 
pictures,  the  woman  herself  merges  into  a  corresponding 
excitement,  and  is  thus  forced  to  passive  exhibition. 
The  speech  of  courtship  is  not  regularly  the  smutty  joke, 
but  may  pass  over  into  one.  If  the  woman  is  yielding 
there  is  no  need  for  the  smutty  wit;  it  is  only  resorted  to 
when  she  is  resistive  and  on  the  defense.  As  the  sexual 
aggression  is  inhibited  in  its  progress  toward  the  act,  the 
sexually  inciting  speech  changes  into  the  smutty  wit;  and 
the  aggressor,  lingering  at  the  evocation  of  the  excitement, 
takes  pleasure  in  the  eifects  his  speech  produces  in  the 
woman.  The  unyieldingness  of  the  woman  is  therefore 
another  condition  for  the  determination  of  the  smutty 
wit.  The  ideal  case  for  such  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
woman  usually  results  from  the  presence  of  another  man 
whose  presence  excludes  the  immediate  yielding  of  the 
woman. 


424  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

The  tendency  joke  usually  requires  three  persons — 
the  first  person  who  makes  the  wit,  the  second  person 
who  is  taken  as  the  object  of  the  hostile  or  sexual  aggres- 
sion, and  the  third  person  in  whom  the  purpose  of  the 
wit  to  produce  pleasure  is  fulfilled.  The  process  may  be 
described  as  follows:  As  soon  as  the  libidinous  impulse 
of  the  first  person  meets  with  resistances  to  his  gratifica- 
tion through  the  woman,  he  immediately  develops  a 
hostile  attitude  toward  this  second  person  and  takes  the 
originally  intruding  third  person  as  his  confederate. 
Through  the  obscene  speech  of  the  first  person  the  woman 
is  exposed  before  the  third  person,  who  as  a  listener  is 
fascinated  by  the  easy  gratification  of  his  own  libido. 
We  can  now  understand  what  wit  performs  by  its  tend- 
ency. It  makes  possible  the  gratification  of  a  craving 
(lewd  or  hostile)  despite  the  hindrance  which  stands  in 
the  way;  it  eludes  the  hindrance  and  draws  pleasure  from 
a  pleasure  source  which  has  become  inaccessible  through 
the  hindrance.  The  hindrance  in  the  way  is  usually 
nothing  but  the  higher  degree  of  social  cultivation  which 
correspondingly  increases  the  inability  of  the  woman  to 
tolerate  the  bare  sexual.  The  power  which  renders  it 
difficult  or  impossible  for  the  woman,  and  in  a  lesser 
degree  for  the  man,  to  enjoy  unveiled  obscenities  we  call 
"repression."  It  is  the  same  psychic  process  which 
keeps  from  consciousness  whole  complexes  of  emotions 
and  ideas,  and  has  shown  itself  to  be  the  principal  factor 
in  the  causation  of  the  psychoneuroses.  Civilization  and 
the  higher  education  have  helped  in  the  development 
of  this  repression,  and  have  produced  many  changes  in 
our  psychic  organization.     What  was  once  perceived  as 


freud's  theory  of  wit  425 

pleasurable  now  appears  as  inacceptable,  and  is  rejected 
by  all  the  psychic  forces.  Owing  to  the  repression  brought 
about  by  civilization  many  primary  pleasures  are  now 
disapproved  by  the  censor  and  lost.  But  the  human 
psyche  finds  renunciation  difficult,  and  hence  we  find 
that  tendency  wit  gives  us  the  means  to  make  the  renun- 
ciation retrogressive,  and  thus  regains  what  has  been  lost. 
When  we  laugh  over  a  delicate  obscene  witticism  we 
laugh  at  the  same  thing  which  causes  laughter  in  the 
ill  bred  man  when  he  hears  a  coarse,  obscene  joke.  The 
pleasure  in  both  cases  comes  from  the  same  source.  The 
coarse,  obscene  joke  could  not,  however,  incite  us  to 
laughter,  because  it  would  cause  us  shame  or  appear  to 
us  disgusting;  we  can  laugh  only  when  wit  comes  to  our 
aid.i^ 

We  have  now  demonstrated  what  was  said  at  the  out- 
set, namely,  that  the  tendency  wit  has  access  to  other 
sources  of  pleasure  than  the  harmless  wit,  in  which  all 
pleasure  depends  on  the  technique.  We  are,  however, 
in  no  position  to  distinguish  in  the  tendency  wit  what 
part  of  the  pleasure  originates  from  the  technique  and 
what  part  from  the  tendency.  Strictly  speaking,  we  do 
not  know  over  what  we  are  laughing. 

When  we  examine  the  role  of  wit  in  the  service  of  the 
hostile  tendency  we  at  once  meet  with  similar  conditions. 
Since  our  individual  childhood  and  the  childhood  of 
human  civilization  our  hostile  impulses  toward  our  fellow 
beings,  like  our  sexual  strivings,  have  been  subjected 
to  restrictions  and  repressions.  Even  to-day  we  are 
not  yet  ready  to  love  our  enemies  and  to  extend  to  them 
our  left  cheek  after  we  are  smitten  on  the  right.     Never-- 


426  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

theless,  we  have  made  some  progress  in  controlling  our 
hostile  feelings.  Higher  civilization  and  culture  trains 
us  to  suppress  the  hostile  disposition;  we  are  taught 
that  it  is  undignified  to  use  insulting  language,  and  even 
the  means  of  combat  have  been  markedly  restricted. 
Society  as  the  third  person  in  the  combat,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  its  own  interest,  prevents  us  from  expressing  our 
hostile  feelings  in  action;  and  hence,  as  in  the  sexual 
aggression,  there  has  developed  a  new  technique  of  invec- 
tive, the  aim  of  which  is  to  enUst  the  third  person  against 
our  enemy.  By  belittling  and  humbling  our  enemy, 
by  scorning  and  ridiculing  him,  we  indirectly  obtain  the 
pleasure  of  his  defeat  through  the  laughter  of  the  third 
person,  the  passive  spectator. 

The  wit  of  hostile  aggression  gives  us  the  means  to 
make  our  enemy  ridiculous,  which,  on  account  of  the 
existing  hindrances,  could  not  be  effected  in  any  other 
way;  in  other  words,  wit  affords  us  the  means  of  sur- 
mounting the  restrictions  and  of  opening  the  otherwise 
inaccessible  pleasure  sources.  Because  of  the  gain  in 
pleasure  it  fascinates  the  hearer  to  take  our  part,  even  if 
he  is  not  convinced — just  as  we  are  wont  to  overestimate 
the  substance  of  witty  remarks  when  we  are  fascinated 
by  their  technique.  By  way  of  illustration  the  following 
example  may  be  cited:  Wendell  Phillips,  according  to  the 
recent  biography  by  Dr.  Lorenzo  Sears,  was,  on  one  occasion, 
lecturing  in  Ohio,  and  while  on  a  railroad  journey  going  to 
keep  one  of  his  appointments,  he  met  in  the  car  a  number  of 
clergymen  returning  from  some  sort  of  convention.  One  of 
the  ministers  felt  called  upon  to  approach  Mr.  Phillips, 
and  asked  him,  "Are  you  Mr.  Phillips?"     "I  am,  sir." 


freud's  theory  of  wit  427 

''Are  you  trying  to  free  the  niggers?''  "Yes,  sir;  I  am  an 
abolitionist."  "Well,  why  do  you  preach  your  doctrines  up 
here  f  Why  don't  you  go  over  into  Kentucky?"  "  Excuse  me, 
are  you  a  preacher?"  "I  am,  sir."  "Are  you  trying  to  save 
souls  from  hell?"  "Yes,  sir,  that's  my  business."  "Well 
why  don't  you  go  there?"  The  assailment  hurried  into  the 
smoker  amid  a  roar  of  unsanctified  laughter.  This  anec- 
dote nicely  illustrates  the  tendency  wit  in  the  service 
of  hostile  aggression.  The  minister's  behavior  was 
offensive  and  irritating,  yet  Wendell  Phillips  as  a  man  of 
culture  could  not  defend  himself  in  the  same  manner  as 
a  common  ill-bred  person  would  have  done,  and  as  his 
inner  feelings  must  have  prompted  him  to  do.  The 
only  alternative  under  the  circumstances  would  have 
been  to  take  the  affront  in  silence,  had  not  wit  showed 
him  the  way,  and  enabled  him  by  the  technical  means 
of  unification  to  turn  the  tables  on  his  assailant.  He 
not  only  belittled  him  and  turned  him  into  ridicule,  but 
by  his  clever  retort,  "Well,  why  don't  you  go  there?" 
fascinated  the  other  clergymen,  and  thus  brought  them 
to  his  side.  The  anecdote  of  the  two  lawyers  mentioned 
above  shows  the  same  mechanism. 

We  have  now  shown  that  the  pleasure  found  in  wit 
is  produced  on  the  one  hand  by  the  technique,  and  on  the 
other  hand  by  the  tendency.  We  will  next  endeavor  to 
discover  the  common  source  uniting  the  two. 

THE  PLEASURE  MECHANISM  AND  PSYCHOGENESIS  OF  WIT 

In  endeavoring  to  discover  how  the  pleasure  results 
from  the  technique  and  the  tendency  of  wit,  and  the 
mechanism  of  this  resulting  pleasure,   we  find  that  the 


428  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

explanation  sought  for  can  be  more  readily  discovered  in 
the  tendency  than  in  the  harmless  wit.  That  the  pleas- 
ure in  the  tendency  wit  results  from  the  gratification 
of  a  tendency,  which  gratification  would  not  otherwise 
take  place,  is  quite  obvious.  But  the  manner  in  which 
wit  produces  this  gratification  depends  on  special  deter- 
minants. There  are  two  different  cases  to  be  considered. 
The  simpler  of  the  two  is  the  case  in  which  an  outer  hindrance 
stands  in  the  way  of  the  gratification  of  the  tendency.  This 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  example:  ''How  many 
members  are  there  in  your  council  of  tenf"  Louis  XIV 
once  sarcastically  asked  the  ambassador  of  the  republic  of 
Venice.  "Forty,  your  Majesty,"  retorted  the  polite  Italian. 
The  wit  in  this  case  serves  to  return  one  affront  for  another. 
The  ambassador  could  not  answer  as  he  would  have  liked, 
because  Louis  XIV  could  not  be  insulted,  so  he  skilfully 
made  use  of  the  unification  wit,  and  thus  paid  him  in  his  own 
coin. 

The  second  class  comprises  cases  in  which  internal 
hindrances  stand  in  the  way  of  the  direct  realization  of 
the  tendency.  As  examples  we  may  cite  the  answer  of 
the  lawyer  to  his  opponent,  and  Wendell  Phillips's  answer 
to  the  clergyman.  Wendell  Phillips  was  prevented  from 
using  invectives  by  a  highly  developed  esthetic  sense, 
but  wit  helped  to  overcome  the  inner  resistances  and  to 
remove  the  inhibitions.  The  gratification  of  the  tend- 
ency is  made  possible,  and  in  this  way  the  suppression 
and  the  "psychic  damming"  connected  with  it  is  evaded. 
The  mechanism  of  the  development  of  pleasure  is  the 
same  in  both  cases.  The  only  difference  between  the 
cases  of  outer  and  inner  hindrances  consists  in  the  fact 


freud's  theory  of  wit  429 

that  in  the  one  an  already  existing  inhibition  is  removed, 
while  in  the  other  the  formation  of  a  new  inhibition  is 
evaded.  We  may  add  that  the  formation  as  well  as  the 
retention  of  a  psychic  inhibition  necessitates  a  "psychic 
expenditure."  If  pleasure  is  obtained  in  the  employ- 
ment of  both  kinds  of  the  tendency  wit,  it  may  be 
readily  assumed  that  such  resultant  pleasure  corresponds  to 
the  economy  of  psychic  expenditure. 

Again  we  are  confronted  with  the  principle  of  economy 
first  noticed  in  the  technique  of  the  wit  of  words;  but 
whereas  the  economy  was  there  confined  to  the  use  of 
few  or  possibly  the  same  words,  it  seems  here  to  comprise 
the  economy  of  psychic  expenditure  in  general.  The 
secret  of  the  pleasure  secured  through  tendency  wit  seems 
to  be  in  the  economy  of  the  expenditure  of  inhibition  or 
suppression.  We  shall  now  turn  to  the  mechanism  of 
the  pleasure  of  the  harmless  wit. 

In  examining  appropriate  examples  of  harmless  wit  we 
concluded  that  the  source  of  pleasure  lies  solely  in  the  tech- 
nique of  the  wit.  Let  us  now  see  whether  this  pleasure 
can  be  traced  to  an  economy  of  psychic  expenditure. 

The  technique  of  one  group  of  this  wit,  the  play  upon 
words,  consisted  in  directing  the  psychic  focus  on  the 
sound  instead  of  on  the  sense  of  the  word,  which  greatly 
facilitated  the  psychic  labor.  It  is  known  that  in 
abnormal  mental  states  where  the  possibility  of  concen- 
trating psychic  expenditure  on  one  place  is  reduced,  the 
word  sounds  are  more  prominent  than  their  significance, 
and  that  such  patients  react  with  "outer"  instead  of 
"inner"  associations.^^  Children  who  still  treat  the  word 
as  an  object,  show  a  tendency  to  seek  the  same  sense  under 


430  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

the  same  or  similar  wording.  This  provides  no  small 
amount  of  amusement  for  grown-ups.  If  wit  gives  us 
pleasure  by  employing  the  same  or  similar  words  in  order 
to  reach  from  one  idea  to  another,  we  can  justly  say  that 
this  pleasure  is  due  to  the  economy  of  psychic  expenditure. 

A  second  group  of  technical  means  of  wit — unification, 
accordance,  allusions  and  citations — all  these  evince  on 
common  character;  namely,  one  always  discovers  some- 
thing familiar  when  one  expects  instead  something  new. 
To  discover  the  familiar  is  pleasurable.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  recognize  such  pleasure  as  one  of  economy  and  to  refer 
it  to  the  economy  of  psychic  expenditure.  That  recogni- 
tion of  the  familiar  causes  pleasure  is  universally  admitted. 
We  know  also  that  the  source  of  pleasure  in  rhyme, 
alliteration,  refrain,  and  other  forms  of  repetition  of 
similar  sounding  words  in  poetry,  is  due  merely  to  the 
discovery  of  the  familiar. 

It  may  be  thought  at  first  sight  that  the  third  group  in 
the  technique,  viz.,  wit  of  thought,  which  include^  dis- 
placement, false  logic,  absurdity,  representation  through 
the  opposite,  etc.,  bears  no  relation  to  the  technique  of 
discovering  the  familiar,  but  it  will  not  be  difficult  to 
demonstrate  that  this  group,  too,  shows  an  economy  or 
facilitation  of  psychic  expenditure.  It  is  quite  obvious 
that  it  is  easier  to  turn  away  from  a  definite  trend  of 
thought  than  to  stick  to  it;  it  is  easier  to  mix  up  different 
things  than  to  distinguish  them;  and  it  is  particularly 
easier  to  pass  over  illogical  conclusions.  Moreover,  in 
connecting  words  or  thoughts  it  is  especially  easy  to 
overlook  the  fact  that  such  connections  should  result  in 
sense.     These  mechanisms  are  well  known  and  are  those 


freud's  theory  of  wit  431 

especially  used  in  the  techniques  of  the  wit  mentioned 
above.  It  will  sound  strange,  however,  to  assert  that 
such  processes  in  the  work  of  wit  may  produce  pleasure. 

Though  "pleasure  and  nonsense"  is  almost  absent  in 
our  serious  existence  it  can  still  be  demonstrated  in  two 
cases.  It  is  visible  in  the  learning  child,  and  in  the  adult 
under  toxic  influences.  When  the  child  learns  to  have 
command  over  its  mother  tongue  it  takes  pleasure  in 
playing  with  words.  It  disregards  the  meaning  of  the 
words  and  connects  them  in  order  to  obtain  pleasure 
through  rhythm  and  rhyme.  An  excellent  example  of 
this  is  the  familiar  "Mother  Goose."  As  the  child 
becomes  older  it  is  forced  to  abandon  this  pleasure  and 
to  employ  the  words  in  their  senseful  meaning.  But 
even  later  in  life  there  is  a  tendency  to  overstep  the 
restrictions  in  the  use  of  words,  and  adults  often  change 
words  by  adding  suffixes  and  prefixes  and  reduplications. 
This  is  especially  seen  in  the  neologisms  of  the  insane.  ^^ 
The  child  makes  use  of  play  in  order  to  withdraw  from 
the  pressure  of  critical  reason  which  is  imposed  upon  it  in 
the  course  of  development.  The  restrictions  appear 
still  greater  when  in  the  education  of  right  thinking  it 
becomes  necessary  to  separate  reality  from  fiction.  As 
a  persistent  resistance  against  these  restrictions  we  may 
mention  the  formation  of  fancies.  The  force  of  reason 
becomes  so  strong  in  later  childhood  and  puberty  that  the 
child  then  rarely  dares  to  utter  nonsense.  But  men  are 
untiring  pleasure  seekers,  and  find  it  extremely  difficult 
to  renounce  pleasure  once  experienced.  The  tendency 
to  skylarking  in  students  is  nothing  but  a  demonstration 
against  the  tyranny  of  forced  study  and  reality,  which 


432  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

they  tolerate  only  impatiently.  No  one  can  fail  to  recog- 
nize in  our  college  cries  and  songs  the  nonsensical  and 
infantile  play  with  words.  These  feelings  are  especially 
enhanced  by  alcoholic  indulgence  under  which  influence 
the  grown  up  again  becomes  a  child.  He  derives  pleas- 
ure from  a  free  disposal  of  his  mental  stream  which  is 
now  unencumbered  by  the  restraint  of  logic. 

In  reviewing  the  three  groups  of  the  technique  of  wit 
it  has  been  shown  that  the  technique  of  the  absurd 
corresponds  to  a  source  of  pleasure;  and  that  this  pleasure 
is  produced  by  the  economy  of  psychic  expenditure,  and 
by  the  relief  from  the  restraint  of  reason.  When  we 
traced  the  psychogenesis  of  wit  we  found  that  the  first  step 
in  wit  is  play.  The  child  plays  when  it  learns  to  use 
words  and  connect  thoughts,  and  this  playing  is  probably 
the  result  of  an  impulse  which  urges  the  child  to  exercise 
its  capacities  (Groos).  Through  the  repetition  of  simi- 
larities, the  rediscovering  of  the  familiar,  and  sound 
associations,  it  obtains  pleasure  which  may  be  explained 
as  an  unexpected  economy  of  psychic  expenditure.  But 
this  playing  is  later  brought  to  an  end  by  reason  which 
rejects  it  as  senseless  or  absurd.  It  is  only  accidentally 
that  the  grown  up  finds  pleasure  in  the  rediscovering  of 
the  familiar.  This  only  occurs  when  he  is  in  a  playful 
mood,  which,  as  in  the  child,  removes  the  critical  inhibi- 
tions. But  as  men  do  not  like  to  wait  for  these  propitious 
occasions,  and  also  hate  to  forego  this  pleasure,  they  seek 
means  to  make  themselves  independent  of  these  pleasant 
states.  This  effort  to  evade  reason  and  find  a  substitute 
for  the  pleasant  mood  produces  the  second  element  of 
wit,  the  jest. 


freud's  theory  of  wit  433 

The  object  of  the  jest  is  to  bring  about  the  resultant 
pleasure  of  playing,  and  at  the  same  time  appease  the 
protesting  reason  which  strives  to  suppress  the  pleasant 
feeling.  The  only  way  to  accomplish  this  is  to  give 
sense  and  meaning  to  the  senseless  and  absurd  combina- 
tion of  words  or  thoughts.  The  whole  process  of  wit 
production  is  therefore  directed  toward  the  discovery  of 
word  and  thought  constellations  which  fulfil  these  con- 
ditions. The  jest  makes  use  of  almost  all  the  technical 
means  of  wit.  The  most  conspicuous  factor  of  the  jest 
is  the  gratification  it  affords  by  making  possible  that 
which  reason  forbids.  Its  object  is  to  remove  inner 
inhibitions  and  thereby  to  render  productive  those  pleas- 
ure sources  which  have  become  inaccessible. 

If  we  follow  the  development  of  the  jest  until  it  reaches 
its  height  in  the  tendency  wit  we  find  that  the  jest's 
effort  is  to  produce  pleasure  and  that  it  is  content  when 
its  utterance  does  not  appear  perfectly  senseless  or 
insipid.  If  this  utterance  is  substantial  and  valuable 
it  changes  into  wit.  When  we  hear  a  good  witticism  we 
experience  a  general  feeling  of  satisfaction  without  being 
able  to  tell  at  once  what  part  of  the  pleasure  comes  from 
the  witty  form,  and  what  part  from  the  excellent  ^thought. 
We  really  do  not  know  what  gives  us  the  pleasure  and  at 
what  we  are  laughing.  This  uncertainty  of  our  judgment 
may  have  given  the  motive  for  the  formation  of  the  wit 
in  the  literal  sense.  The  thought  seeks  the  disguise  of 
wit,  because  through  the  wit  it  recommends  itself  to  our 
attention  and  can  appear  to  us  more  important  and  valu- 
able than  it  is,  but  above  all  because  this  disguise  fascin- 
ates and  confuses  our  reason.     We  are  apt  to  attribute 

28 


434  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

to  the  thought  the  pleasure  derived  from  the  witty  form, 
and  we  are  not  inclined  to  consider  improper  what  gives 
us  pleasure,  and  in  this  way  to  close  up  a  source  of  pleasure. 
For  if  wit  makes  us  laugh  it  is  because  it  establishes  in 
us  a  disposition  unfavorable  to  reason  and  conducive  to 
play.  To  accompUsh  this  the  wit  had  to  exert  all  its 
effort.  Although  such  wit  is  harmless,  and  not  purpose- 
ful, we  can  assume  that  strictly  speaking  the  jest  alone 
shows  no  tendency,  that  is,  it  serves  to  produce  pleasure 
only.  Wit,  on  the  other  hand,  is  never  purposeless,  as 
the  great  tendencies  and  impulses  of  our  psychic  life  use 
it  for  their  purposes.  We  have  shown  above  the  part 
played  by  wit  in  satisfying  the  hostile  and  obscene 
impulses;  the  hostile  wit  changes  the  original  indifferent 
hearers  into  haters  and  scorners,  and  thus  confronts  the 
enemy  with  an  army  of  opponents  wherp  there  was  for- 
merly but  one.  The  obscene  wit  makes  a  confederate 
of  the  third  person,  who  originally  disturbed  the  sexual 
situation,  by  giving  him  pleasure  through  the  utterance 
which  causes  the  woman  to  be  ashamed  in  his  presence. 
In  the  first  case  wit  overthrows  the  critical  judgment 
which  would  have  otherwise  examined  the  dispute  in 
question,  while  in  the  second  case  it  overcomes  the  inhibi- 
tions of  shame  and  decorum  by  the  pleasure  premium 
which  it  offers. 

What  impressed  us  most  on  first  reviewing  the  processes 
of  the  tendency  wit  was  the  effect  it  produced  on  the 
hearer.  It  is  more  important,  however,  to  understand 
the  effect  produced  by  wit  on  the  psychic  life  of  the  person 
who  makes  it,  or,  to  be  more  precise,  in  the  person  who 
conceives  it. 


preud's  theory  of  wit  435 

In  regard  to  its  distribution  we  may  study  the  psychic 
processes  of  wit  in  reference  to  two  persons,  the  wit  pro- 
ducer and  the  hearer.  We  can  at  present  assume  that 
the  psychic  process  aroused  by  wit  in  the  hearer  is  usually 
an  imitation  of  the  psychic  processes  of  the  wit  producer. 
The  outer  inhibitions  which  are  overcome  in  the  hearer 
correspond  to  the  inner  inhibitions  of  the  wit  producer. 
Of  the  different  forms  of  the  inner  inhibitions  one  espe- 
cially merits  consideration.  We  designate  that  form  by 
the  name  of  "repression,"  and  it  is  characterized  by  the 
fact  that  it  excludes  from  consciousness  certain  former 
emotions  and  their  products.  Tendency  wit  is  capable 
of  liberating  pleasure  from  sources  which  have  under- 
gone repression.  If  the  overcoming  of  outer  hindrances 
can  be  traced  to  inner  inhibitions  and  repressions  we 
may  say  that  the  tendency  wit  proves  more  clearly  than 
any  other  developmental  stage  of  wit  that  the  main  char- 
acter of  wit-making  is  to  set  free  pleasure  by  removing 
inhibitions.  The  tendency  wit  reinforces  the  tendencies 
which  it  serves  by  bringing  to  them  assistance  from 
repressed  emotions  or  it  serves,  the  repressed  tendencies 
directly.  Although  we  may  readily  assert  that  these  are  the 
functions  of  the  tendency  wit,  we  must  also  admit  that  we 
cannot  understand  in  what  manner  these  actions  can  suc- 
ceed. This  is  a  rather  complicated  process,  which  we  will 
attempt  to  demonstrate  synthetically. 

According  to  G.  Th.  Fechner,  a  meeting  of  pleasurable 
conditions  will  produce  a  resultant  pleasure  greater  than 
the  sum  of  the  pleasure  values  of  the  separate  conditions. 
The  result  is  greater  than  the  sum  total  of  the  single 
effects.     The  theme  of  wit  does  not  give  us  the  oppor- 


436  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

tunity  to  test  the  correctness  of  this  principle.  But 
from  wit  we  have  learned  something  else  which  at  least 
comes  near  this  principle.  We  have  shown  above  that 
in  a  cooperation  of  many  pleasure-producing  factors  we 
are  in  no  position  to  assign  to  each  one  the  resultant  part 
which  really  belongs  to  it.  But  the  situation  assumed 
in  the  principle  of  assistance  can  be  varied,  and  for  these 
new  conditions  we  can  formulate  the  following  questions 
and  answers:  What  happens  if  in  one  constellation  there 
is  a  meeting  of  pleasurable  and  painful  conditions?  Upon 
what  does  the  result  depend  and  can  we  have  any  previous 
indications  of  it?  The  tendency  wit  particularly  shows 
these  possibilities.  There  is  one  tendency  which  strives 
to  liberate  pleasure  from  a  certain  source,  while  there 
is  another  which  works  against  this  pleasurable  develop- 
ment, that  is,  which  inhibits  or  suppresses  it.  The  sup- 
pressing stream,  as  the  result  shows,  must  be  somewhat 
stronger  than  the  one  suppressed,  and  is  therefore  not 
abolished.  But  now  there  appears  a  second  tendency  which 
would  strive  to  set  free  pleasure  by  the  same  process  though 
from  a  different  source ;  it  thus  acts  like  the  suppressed  one. 
What  can  be  the  result?  This  will  be  better  illustrated  by 
an  example.  There  is  a  tendency  to  insult  a  certain  person, 
but  against  this  there  is  a  feeling  of  decorum  and  esthetic 
culture.  If  by  virtue  of  some  emotional  state  the  insult 
should  happen  to  break  through  it  would  subsequently  be 
painfully  perceived.  The  insult  is  therefore  omitted. 
There  is  a  possibility,  however,  of  making  good  wit  from  the 
words  or  thoughts  which  would  have  served  in  the  insult, 
that  is,  pleasure  can  be  set  free  from  other  sources  without 
being  hindered  by  the  same  suppression.     But  the  second 


freud's  theory  of  wit  437 

development  of  pleasure  would  have  to  be  omitted  if  the 
insulting  were  not  admitted,  and  as  the  latter  is  admitted 
it  is  connected  with  the  new  Hberation  of  pleasure. 
Experience  j^with  tendency  wit  shows  that  under  such 
circumstances  the  suppressed  tendency  can  become  so 
strengthened  by  the  help  of  wit  pleasure  as  to  overcome 
the  otherwise  stronger  inhibition.  But  the  satisfaction 
thus  obtained  is  not  produced  by  the  wit  alone;  jt  ,is  in- 
comparably greater,  in  fact  it  is  by  so  much  greater  than 
the  pleasure  of  the  wit  that  we  must  assume  that  the  former 
suppressed  tendency  has  succeeded  in  breaking  through, 
perhaps  without  an  outlet.  Under  these  conditions  the 
tendency  wit  causes  the  most  prolific  laughter.  Hence 
we  see  that  the  case  of  the  tendency  wit  is  a  special  case  of 
the  principle  of  assistance.  A  possibility  of  the  develop- 
ment of  pleasure  enters  into  a  situation  in  which  another 
possibility  of  pleasure  is  hindered,  so  that  this  alone  would 
not  result  in  pleasure.  The  result  is  a  development  of 
pleasure  which  is  greater  by  far  than  the  entering  possi- 
bility. The  latter  acted,  as  it  were,  as  an  alluring  pre- 
mium, and  with  the  aid  of  a  small  sum  of  pleasure  a  very 
large  sum  is  obtained.  The  pleasure  serving  to  liberate 
the  large  sum  of  pleasure  is  designated  as  fore-pleasure 
(Vorlust),  and  the  principle  is  designated  as  the  principle 
of  fore-pleasure. 

The  effect  of  the  tendency  wit  can  be  formulated  as 
follows:  It  enters  into  the  service  of  tendencies  in  order 
to  produce  new  pleasure  by  removing  suppressions  and 
repressions.  This  it  does  by  means  of  the  wit  pleasure 
as  fore-pleasure.  When  we  review  its  development  we 
find  that  it  begins  as  play  in  order  to  produce  pleasure 


438  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

from  the  free  use  of  words  and  thoughts.  When  the 
growing  reason  forbids  this  senseless  play  with  words 
and  thoughts  it  turns  to  the  jest  or  joke  in  order  to  hold 
on  to  these  pleasure  sources,  and  in  order  to  be  able  to 
gain  new  pleasure  from  the  liberation  of  the  absurd. 
As  harmless  wit  it  assists  thoughts  and  enforces  them 
against  the  assault  of  critical  judgment.  In  this  it  makes 
use  of  the  principle  of  confounding  the  pleasure  sources. 
It  finally  enters  into  the  struggling  suppressed  tendencies 
in  order  to  remove  inner  inhibitions  in  accordance  with  the 
principle  of  fore-pleasure.  It  combats  in  turn  the  reason — 
the  critical  judgment — and  the  repression.  It  firmly 
adheres  to  the  original  word  pleasure  sources,  and  opens  new 
pleasure  sources  by  removing  inhibitions.  The  pleasure 
which  it  produces,  be  it  play-pleasure  or  removal-pleasure, 
can  at  all  times  be  traced  to  the  economy  of  psychic 
expenditure. 

THE  MOTIVES  OF  WIT  AND  WIT  AS  A  SOCIAL  PROCESS 

Although  the  desire  to  gain  pleasure  is  clearly  a  sufficient 
motive  of  wit,  there  are  other  motives  which  may  par- 
ticipate in  its  production.  Though  wit-making  is  an 
excellent  means  of  obtaining  pleasure  from  the  psychic 
processes,  we  know  that  not  all  persons  are  equally  able 
to  make  use  of  it.  Wit-making  is  not  at  the  disposal  of 
everybody;  indeed  few  persons  seem  to  possess  this  gift. 
It  is  entirely  independent  of  intelligence,  phantasy,  mem- 
ory, etc.  A  special  talent  or  psychic  determination 
permitting  or  favoring  wit-making  must  be  presupposed 
in  all  wits.  It  is  not  often  possible  to  investigate  this 
theme;  only  now  and  then  can  we  enter  into  the  sub- 


Freud's  theory  of  wit  439 

jective  determinations  in  the  mind  of  the  wit  maker. 
The  physician  indeed  occasionally  has  opportunity  to 
study  persons  who,  if  not  renowned  wits,  are  recognized 
in  their  circle  as  witty;  and  he  is  often  surprised  to  find 
such  persons  showing  dissociated  personalities  and  a 
predisposition  to  nervous  affections.  Owing,  however, 
to  insuflScient  investigations  this  cannot  be  put  down  as 
a  general  rule.  A  clearer  case  is  afforded  by  jokes  of 
Jewish  subject-matter,  and  made  exclusively  by  Jews. 
The  determinant  for  the  self-participation  seems  to  be 
plain.  It  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  person  finds  it  diffi- 
cult to  directly  express  his  criticism  and  aggression  and  is 
thus  compelled  to  resort  to  byways.  Jewish  jokes  not 
produced  by  Jews  never  rise  above  the  level  of  the  comical 
strain  or  the  brutal  mockery.  The  motive  for  the  pro- 
duction of  harmless  wit  is  usually  the  ambitious  impulse 
"to  show  off,"  or  to  give  a  favorable  impression.  It  is  an 
impulse  comparable  to  the  sexual  exhibition.  The 
existence  of  numerous  inhibited  impulses,  the  suppression 
of  which  retains  a  certain  degree  of  lability,  produces  a 
state  favorable  for  the  production  of  the  tendency  wit. 
Certain  components  of  the  sexual  constitution  may  appear 
as  motives  for  wit  formation.  Persons  inclined  to  obscene 
joking  usually  conceal  a  desire  to  exhibit.  Persons  having 
a  powerful  sadistic  component  in  their  sexuality,  which  is 
more  or  less  inhibited,  are  most  successful  with  the  tendency 
wit  of  aggression.  It  is  universally  known  that  no  person 
is  satisfied  with  making  wit  for  himself.  Wit  making  is 
inseparably  connected  with  the  desire  to  impart  it.  To 
impart  the  comical  to  another  person  is  pleasurable,  but 
one    can    enjoy  it    alone,   while  wit  must   be   imparted. 


440  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Apparently  the  psychic  process  of  wit  formation  does  not  end 
with  the  conception  of  the  wit.  There  is  something  left 
which  strives  to  complete  the  mysterious  process  of  wit 
formation  by  imparting  it.  The  wit  producer  is  in  need 
of  another  person  to  whom  the  wit  may  be  imparted. 
Wit  is  thus  a  social  process.  Due  to  the  wit  making,  the 
person  who  makes  the  wit  does  not  laugh  at  his  own  pro- 
duction, but  he  causes  inhibitions  to  become  superfluous  in 
the  hearer  and  thus  cause  a  discharge  of  the  repression  of  the 
hearer  through  laughter.  The  hearer  may  be  said  to  laugh 
with  the  amount  of  psychic  energy  which  is  set  free  by  the 
suspension  of  inhibitions;  that  is,  we  laugh  away,  as  it  were, 
this  amount  of  psychic  energy.  When  we  laugh  at  a  joke 
we  really  do  not  know  what  we  are  laughing  at;  this  can  be 
ascertained  by  analysis.  Laughing  is  the  result  of  an  auto- 
matic process  and  is  possible  only  in  the  absence  of  con- 
scious attention.  It  is  the  property  of  wit  to  exert  its 
full  effect  on  the  hearer  only  when  it  is  new  and  surprising 
to  him.  This  property,  which  causes  wit  to  be  shortlived, 
and  forever  urges  the  production  of  new  wit,  is  appar- 
ently due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  surpris- 
ing and  the  unexpected  not  to  succeed  a  second  time. 
When  we  repeat  wit  the  awakened  memory  leads  the 
attention  to  the  first  hearing.  This  also  explains  the  desire 
to  impart  wit  to  others  who  have  not  heard  it  before,  for 
the  impression  made  by  wit  on  the  new  hearer  replenishes 
in  the  wit  maker  that  part  of  the  pleasure  which  has  been 
lost  by  the  lack  of  novelty.  An  analogous  motive  prob- 
ably urges  the  wit  producer  to  impart  his  wit  to  others. 


freud's  theory  of  wit  441 

THE  RELATION  OF  WIT  TO  DREAMS  AND  TO  THE 
UNCONSCIOUS 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  cannot  here  enter  fully  into 
the  deep  psychological  mechanisms  of  dreams,  which 
are  so  essential  to  illustrate  the  similar  mechanisms  of 
wit.  I  will  have  to  refer  the  reader  to  the  last  chapter 
of  Freud's  Interpretation  of  Dreams.  We  may  however 
attempt  to  show  some  of  the  profounder  relations  between 
the  dream  and  wit. 

Besides  the  resemblances  in  the  techniques  of  wit  and 
dreams — condensation,  displacement,  and  so  on — we 
also  find  that  the  formation  of  wit  is  similar  to  the  forma- 
tion of  dreams;  that  is,  a  fore-consdous  thought  is  left  for  a 
moment  to  the  unconscious  elaboration  and  its  result  is 
forthwith  grasped  by  the  conscious  perception.  Like  the 
dream,  wit  is  an  involuntary  mental  occurrence.  One 
cannot  tell  a  moment  before  what  joke  he  is  going  to 
crack.  One  usually  experiences  something  indefinable 
which  Prof.  Freud  compares  to  an  absence  or  sudden  sus- 
pension of  intellectual  tension,  and  the  wit  then  appears 
suddenly.  Brevity,  too,  is  common  to  both  wit  and 
dreams.  In  both  this  is  the  result  of  the  process  of  con- 
densation. The  thought  which  merges  into  the  uncon- 
scious for  the  purpose  of  forming  wit  seeks  there  the 
infantile  play  with  words,  for  the  infantile  is  the  source 
of  the  unconscious.  The  thought  is  put  back  for  a 
moment  into  the  infantile  stage  in  order  to  regain  pos- 
session of  the  childish  pleasure  sources.  As  has  already 
been  demonstrated  in  the  psychology  of  the  neuroses  the 
peculiar  elaboration  of  wit  is  only  an  infantile  type  of 
thinking.     The   dream,   also,   wherein   the   child   with   all 


442  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

its  impulses  continues  to  live,  has  its  origin  in  the  infantile 
life. 

Besides  the  many  resemblances  between  dreams  and 
wit  we  can  also  discover  some  differences.  The  most 
important  difference  lies  in  their  social  behavior.  The 
dream  is  a  perfect  asocial  psychic  product;  having  origi- 
nated in  a  person  as  a  compromise  between  strug- 
gling psychic  streams,  it  remains  incomprehensible  to 
the  person  himself,  and  has  no  interest  or  information 
for  anybody  else.  Wit,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the 
most  social  of  all  the  psychic  functions  aiming  to  gain 
pleasure;  it  often  requires  three  persons,  and  the  psychic 
process  which  it  incites  always  requires  the  participation 
of  at  least  one  other  person.  The  dream  is  a  hidden  wish, 
while  wit  is  a  developed  play.  Despite  all  its  apparent 
unreality  the  dream  retains  its  relation  to  the  important 
practical  interests  of  life;  it  seeks  to  fulfill  the  needs 
through  a  regressive  detour  of  hallucinations,  and  it 
owes  its  existence  to  the  strong  need  for  sleep  during  the 
night.  Wit,  on  the  other  hand,  seeks  to  draw  a  small 
amount  of  pleasure  from  the  free  activities  of  our  psychic 
apparatus,  and  to  seize  this  pleasure  as  an  incidental  gain. 
It  thus  extends  secondarily  to  important  functions  relative 
to  the  outer  world.  The  dream  serves  preponderately 
to  guard  from  pain,  while  wit  serves  to  acquire  pleasure, 
but  all  our  psychic  activities  meet  in  these  two  aims. 
WIT  AND  THE  COMIC 

Comic  differs  from  wit  in  its  social  behavior.  The 
comic  is  content  with  only  two  persons,  one  who  finds 
the  comical  and  one  in  whom  it  is  found.  A  third  person 
to   whom   the   comical   may   be  imparted   reinforces  the 


freud's  theory  of  wit  443 

comic  process,  but  adds  nothing  new  to  it.  In  wit 
the  third  person  is  indispensable  for  the  protection  of 
the  pleasure-bearing  process,  while  the  second  person  may  be 
omitted,  especially  when  we  do  not  deal  with  tendency 
and  aggressive  wit.  Wit  is  made,  while  the  comical  is 
found.  The  comic  is  usually  found  first  in  persons,  and 
later  by  transference  it  may  be  seen  also  in  objects, 
situations,  etc.  We  also  know  that  wit  occasionally 
reopens  inaccessible  sources  of  the  comic,  and  that  the 
comic  often  serves  to  wit  as  a  fagade  to  replace  the 
fore-pleasure. 

That  form  of  comic  which  is  nearest  to  wit  is  the  naive 
or  ingenuous.  The  naive,  like  the  comic,  is  usually 
found  and  not  made.  It  must  result  without  our  inter- 
vention from  the  speech  and  actions  of  other  persons, 
and  it  can  only  be  produced  by  persons  who  have  no 
inhibitions  to  overcome.  What  conditions  the  functions 
of  the  naive  is  the  fact  that  we  are  aware  that  the  person 
does  not  possess  this  inhibition;  otherwise  we  should  not 
call  it  naive,  but  impudent,  and  instead  of  laughing  we 
should  be  indignant.  The  effect  of  the  naive  which  is 
irresistible,  seems  easy  to  understand.  The  inhibition 
which  is  usually  formed  in  us  suddenly  becomes  inappli- 
cable when  we  hear  the  naive,  and  is  discharged  through 
laughing.  As  the  removal  of  the  inhibition  is  direct,  and 
not  the  result  of  an  incited  operation,  there  is  no  need 
for  a  suspension  of  attention.  We  behave  like  the  hearer 
in  wit,  to  whom  the  economy  of  inhibition  is  given  with- 
out any  effort  on  his  part.  The  naive  is  mostly  found  in 
children  in  whom  no  inhibitions  are  developed  and  in 
uneducated    adults,    whom    we    consider    as    children    in 


444  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

reference  to  their  intellectual  development.  The  follow- 
ing examples  will  serve  as  illustrations. 

Little  Boy:  ''/  want  the  doctor  to  come  to  our  house." 
Servant:  "Where  do  you  come  from?"  Little  Boy:  "Don't 
you  know  me?  Why,  we  do  business  with  you;  we  had  a 
haby  from  here  last  week." 

Said  a  farmer:  "7  understand  that  they  make  instru- 
ments with  which  the  stars  and  planets  can  be  examined. 
That  I  know  is  possible;  but  how  the  learned  men  dis- 
covered the  names  of  the  stars  and  planets — that  I  cannot 
understand." 

The  examples  of  naivete  do  not  apparently  differ  from 
wit  in  either  structure  or  technique.  It  is  merely  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  speaker  intends  to  be  witty,  or  whether, 
owing  to  his  uncorrected  ignorance,  he  is  serious  or  means 
precisely  what  he  says.  In  the  latter  case  we  deal  with 
the  naive.  The  naive  agrees  with  wit  in  both  structure 
and  content,  but  the  psychic  process  of  the  first  person  or 
producer,  which  is  so  interesting  in  wit,  is  here  entirely 
absent.  The  ingenuous  person  imagines  that  he  is  using 
his  thoughts  and  expressions  in  a  simple  and  normal 
manner;  he  has  no  other  purpose  in  view,  and  receives  no 
pleasure  from  his  naive  productions.  Thus  the  little  boy 
believed  that  children  are  obtained  from  the  doctor, 
and  the  farmer  actually  thought  that  every  star  and 
planet  comes  into  existence  with  a  dfienite  name,  which 
men  of  science  have  a  way  of  discovering.  All  the  char- 
acters of  the  naive  lie  in  the  conception  of  the  hearer,  who 
corresponds  to  the  third  person  of  the  wit.  The  producing 
person  creates  the  naive  without  any  effort.  The  com- 
plicated technique   which  in   wit  serves  to  paralyze  the 


preud's  theory  of  wit  445 

iDhibition  produced  by  the  critical  reason  does  not  exist 
here,  because  the  person  does  not  yet  possess  this  inhibi- 
tion, and  he  can  therefore  readily  produce  the  senseless 
and  the  obscene  without  any  compromise. 

We  have  said  above  that  the  effective  determinant  of 
wit  consists  in  the  fact  that  both  persons  should  be  sub- 
jected to  about  the  same  inhibition  of  inner  resistances. 
We  may  say  now  that  the  determinant  of  the  naive  con- 
sists in  the  fact  that  one  person  should  have  inhibitions 
which  the  other  lacks.  It  is  the  person  provided  with 
inhibitions  who  understands  the  naive,  and  it  is  he  alone 
who  gains  the  pleasure  produced  by  the  naive.  This, 
as  we  know,  is  due  to  the  removal  of  inhibitions.  But 
in  order  to  recognize  the  naive  we  have  to  be  cognizant 
of  the  fact  that  there  are  no  inner  inhibitions  in  the 
producing  persons.  It  is  only  when  this  is  assured  that 
we  laugh,  instead  of  being  indignant.  We  take  into 
consideration  the  psychic  state  of  the  producing  person; 
we  imagine  ourselves  in  the  same,  and  endeavor  to  under- 
stand it  by  comparing  it  to  our  own  psychic  state.  This 
putting  ourselves  in  the  psychic  state  of  the  producing 
person  and  comparing  it  with  our  own  results  in  an 
economy  of  expenditure  which  we  discharge  through 
laughing.  This  strange  mechanism  is  perhaps  the  essen- 
tial part  of  the  psychic  process  of  the  comic.  Looking 
at  it  from  this  viewpoint  the  naive  is  a  form  of  the  comic. 
The  pleasure  produced  by  the  naive  is  "comical"  pleasure. 
It  originates  through  an  economy  of  expenditure  by  com- 
paring the  utterances  of  some  one  else  with  our  own. 
The  comical,  therefore,  results  in  an  unintentional  dis- 
covery in  the   social   relations   of  men.     It  is  found   in 


446  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

persons,  that  is,  in  their  movements,  shapes,  actions,  etc., 
and  sometimes  also  in  animals  and  inanimate  objects. 

The  comical  can  be  removed  from  the  person  in  whom  it 
is  found  if  the  condition  under  which  a  person  becomes 
comical  can  be  recognized.  This  shows  that  there  is  a 
comical  situation  into  which  any  person  can  place  himself 
or  others  to  appear  comical.  The  means  which  can  effect 
this  are:  transference  into  comic  situations,  imitation, 
disguise,  unmasking,  caricature,  parody,  travesty,  etc. 
As  can  be  seen,  the  sphere  of  origin  for  the  comic  is  con- 
siderably broader  than  that  of  the  naive.  In  order  to 
trace  the  determination  of  the  comic  we  will  examine  the 
comic  movement. 

We  laugh  at  the  actions  of  clowns  because  they  appear 
to  us  immoderate  and  inappropriate,  that  is,  we  really 
laugh  over  the  excessive  expenditure.  The  child's 
emotions  do  not  appear  to  us  comical  even  if  it  jumps  and 
fidgets,  but  it  is  comical  to  see  a  little  boy  follow  with  his 
tongue  the  movements  of  his  pen  when  he  is  trying  to 
master  the  art  of  writing.  We  see  in  this  additional 
motion  a  superfluous  expenditure  of  energy  which  we 
should  save  under  similar  conditions.  In  the  same  way 
we  find  it  comical  to  see  a  marked  exaggeration  of  expres- 
sive motions  in  adults.  Thus  we  laugh  at  grimaces  which 
exaggerate  the  normal  expressions  of  emotions,  even  if 
they  are  involuntary,  as  in  chorea  and  tics.  We  laugh 
because  we  compare  the  motions  observed  in  others  with 
those  which  we  ourselves  should  produce  if  we  were  in 
their  place.  That  person  appears  to  us  comical  who 
puts  forth  too  much  expenditure  in  his  physical  functions 
and    too    Httle    in    his   psychic.     Our   laughing   in    both 


freud's  theory  of  wit         447 

cases  expresses  a  pleasant  feeling  of  superiority  which  we 
attribute  to  ourselves  when  we  compare  ourselves  with 
him.  This  is  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  the 
genesis  of  the  comic. 

The  difference  between  the  comic  and  wit  is  found  in 
the  chief  psychological  character  of  the  comic.  The 
pleasure  source  of  wit  we  have  found  in  the  unconscious, 
but  there  is  no  reason  for  the  same  localization  of  the 
comic.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  analyses  point  to  the 
fact  that  the  source  of  the  comical  pleasure  is  the  com- 
parison of  two  expenditures  which  we  must  attribute  to 
the  fore-conscious.  The  main  difference  between  wit 
and  comic  is  found  in  the  psychic  localization;  wit  is, 
so  to  say,  the  contribution  of  the  comic  from  the  sphere 
of  the  unconscious. 

Without  entering  into  the  details  of  other  forms  of  the 
comic  we  will  briefly  discuss  humor.  Humor  is  the  means 
of  obtaining  pleasure  despite  existing  painful  affects. 
If  we  are  in  a  situation  which  causes  us  to  liberate  painful 
affects,  and  motives  then  urge  us  to  suppress  the  same  in 
statu  nascendi,  we  have  the  conditions  for  humor.  Thus 
persons  afflicted  with  misfortune,  pain,  etc.,  can  gain 
humoristic  pleasure  while  the  onlookers  laugh  over  the 
comical  pleasure.  The  pleasure  of  humor  results  at  the 
cost  of  this  discontinued  liberation  of  affect;  it  originates 
through  an  economy  of  emotional  expenditure.  Humor 
does  not  require  the  participation  of  another  person;  one  can 
enjoy  the  pleasure  of  humor  without  feeling  the  necessity 
of  imparting  it  to  another.  To  understand  the  psycholog- 
ical mechanisms  of  humoristic  pleasure  it  is  best  to  examine 
the   so-called   "grim  humor"    (Galgenhumor),    where  we 


448  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

regularly  find  that  humor  is  produced  at  the  cost  of  a  great 
expenditure  of  psychic  work.  Economy  of  sympathy  is  one 
of  the  most  frequent  causes  of  humoristic  pleasure.  Mark 
Twain's  humor  usually  shows  this  mechanism. 

Humor  stands  nearer  to  the  comic  than  wit.  Like  the 
comic  it  is  located  in  the  fore-conscious,  whereas  wit  is 
formed  as  a  compromise  between  the  unconscious  and 
fore-conscious. 

We  have  shown  that  the  pleasure  of  wit  originates  from 
an  economy  of  expenditure  in  inhibition,  of  the  comic 
from  an  economy  of  expenditure  in  thought,  and  of  humor 
from  an  economy  of  expenditure  in  feeling.  All  three 
activities  of  our  psychic  apparatus  derive  pleasure  from 
economy.  They  all  strive  to  bring  back  from  the  psychic 
activity  a  pleasure  which  has  been  lost  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  activity;  for  the  euphoria  which  we  are  thus 
striving  to  obtain  is  nothing  but  the  state  of  a  bygone 
time  in  which  we  were  wont  to  defray  our  psychic  work 
with  slight  expenditure.  It  is  the  state  of  our  childhood 
in  which  we  did  not  know  the  comic,  were  incapable  of 
wit,  and  did  not  need  humor  to  make  us  happy. 

References 

1.  Freud:  Wit  and  its  Relation  to  the  Unconscious  translation  by 
Brill,  Moffat  Yard  &  Co.,  New  York,  1916. 

2.  Freud:L.  c,  p.  122. 

3.  Hamlet,  Act  II,  Scene  II,  1.90. 

4.  The  Interpretation  of  Dreams.  George  Allen  Co.,  London,  and 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.     Cf.  also  Chap.  III. 

5.  Cf.  Chap.  III. 

6.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  25. 

7.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  26. 

8.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  36. 


freud's  theory  of  wit         449 

9.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  37. 

10.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  47. 

11.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  50. 

12.  Freud:  L.  c,  p.  50. 

13.  Translated  by  A.  A.  Brill,  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  dis- 
eases.    Monograph  series,  No.  7. 

14.  Cf.  Chap.  III.  p.  44.  The  obscene  joke  formed  by  the  sound 
associations  bald-balled  fulfils  all  the  conditions  of  the  purposive 
smutty  joke. 

15.  Cf.  Chap.  VIII. 

16.  Cf.  Chap.  VIII. 


29 


GLOSSARY 


Abasia.     Inability  to  walk. 

Abreaction  {ab,  off,  away,  and  react,  to  act  again).  The 
process  of  working  off  a  past  disagreeable  experience  by 
living  through  it  again  in  speech -or  action  in  the  presence 
of  the  psychoanalyst. 

Affect.     Sum  of  excitation,  or  emotion. 

Algolagnia  (algos,  pain,  and  lagnos,  sexually  excited).  Sex- 
ual excitement  in  causing  or  experiencing  pain. 

Ambivalent  Feelings.  The  emotions  of  love  and  hatred  ex- 
perienced at  the  same  time  for  one  person. 

Amnesia.  A  memory  defect  extending  over  a  definite  and 
circumscribed  period  while  the  rest  of  the  memory  is 
intact. 

Aphonia.     Speechlessness. 

Astasia.     Inability  to  stand. 

Auto-erotism.  Self  gratification,  one  of  the  main  charac- 
teristics in  the  psychosexual  life  of  children. 

Bisexual  (of  both  sexes).     A  sexual  feeling  for  both  sexes. 

Blocking.  A  sudden  stop  in  the  association  produced  when 
a  complex  is  touched. 

Catharsis.  A  mental  purging  produced  by  bringing  to  the 
surface  disagreeable  or  painful  thoughts  and  experiences. 

Cloaca  Theory.     The  theory  assumed  by  children  and  some 

neurotics  that  the  child  comes  out  like  a  passage  of  the 

bowels,  because  they  know  of  only  one  opening  that  forms 

an  outlet  from  the  body. 

450 


-?r< 


GLOSSARY  451 

Complex.     A  series  of  emotionally  accentuated  ideas  which 

were  once  conscious  and  now  in  a  repressed  state. 
Condensation.     A  fusion  of  events,  thoughts  and  pictures. 
Conscious.     Mental  processes  of  which  we  are  aware  at  a 

given  moment. 
Contamination.     A  fusion  of  words. 

Conversion.     The  process  by  which  sums  of  emotion  be- 
come transformed  into  physical  manifestations. 
Coprophilia.     Liking  for  filth. 
Delusion.     False  idea  which  cannot  be  influenced  by  any 

logic. 
Dementia  Praecox.     A  form  of  insanity. 
Dipsomania.     A  periodic  uncontrollable  desire  for  drink. 
Displacement.     A  substitution  of  one  idea  for  another,  or 

an  exchange  of  a  colorless  and  abstract  expression  in  the 

dream-thought    for   one   that   is   visual   and    concrete. 
Erogenous  Zone.     An  organ,  which  if  stimulated  bestows  on 

the  impulse  a  sexual  character. 
Erotomania.     An  extravagant  affection  for  some  person, 

usually  of  the  opposite  sex,  manifested  in  some  forms  of 

insanity. 
Euphoria.     Feeling  of  well  being. 
Exhibitionism.     Sexual  gratification  experienced  in  the  act 

of  exhibiting  the  sexual  organs. 
Fellatio.     The  apposition  of  the  mouth  to  the  male  organ. 
Fore-conscious.     Mental  processes  which  cannot  become 

conscious  unless  certain  conditions  are  fulfilled. 
Hallucination.     A  sensory  impression,  like  hearing  or  seeing, 

which  originates  in  the  brain  without  any  corresponding 

external  stimulus. 
Heterosexuality.    Love  for  persons  of  the  opposite  sex. 


452  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Homosexuality.     Love  for  persons  of  the  same  sex. 

Idiogamist.  One  capable  of  coitus  with  only  one  particular 
woman,  or  with  only  a  few  selected  ones,  and  either  abso- 
lutely or  nearly  impotent  with  all  the  rest. 

Libido.     Sexual  craving. 

Maoschism.  Sexual  excitement  accompanied  by  the  wish 
to  be  physically  subdued  and  hurt  by  the  sexual  object. 

Narcism.  A  partial  or  complete  sexual  excitement  through 
the  admiration  of  one's  own  body. 

Noopsyche.     Intellectual  processes. 

Over-determination.  To  gain  access  to  a  dream  or  neurotic 
symptom  every  element  must  be  connected  with  it  by 
many  associations,  hence  every  element  of  the  dream  can 
have  many  meanings. 

Pseudologia  phantastica.     Pathological  liars. 

Sadism.  Sexual  excitement  accompanied  by  the  wish  to 
cause  pain  to  the  sexual  object. 

Schizophrenia.     See  dementia  prsecox. 

Secondary  elaboration.  The  effort  to  bring  coherence  and 
order  into  the  conglomerations  and  inconsistencies  of  the 
dream  content  when  the  latter  is  grasped  by  conscious- 
ness. 

Skatologic.     Relating  to  fecal  matter. 

Somatic.      Physical. 

Somnambulism.  A  state  in  which  walking  or  other  com- 
plicated acts  are  performed  during  sleep. 

Sublimation.  The  process  of  deviating  sexual  motive 
powers  from  sexual  aims  to  new  aims  other  than  sexual. 

Thymopsyche.     Affective  processes. 

Tic.     Spasm  of  muscles. 


GLOSSARY  453 

Transference.  A  displacement  of  any  affect  from  one  idea 
to  another,  or  from  one  person  to  another. 

Unconscious.  Mental  processes  which  cannot  be  brought 
to  consciousness  without  external  aid. 

Voyeurs.     Persons  who  attain  sexual  gratification  by  look- 

*     ing  at  sexual  objects. 

Zoophilia  Erotic.  Sexual  excitement  or  gratification  evoked 
by  the  patting,  touching,  etc.,  of  animals. 


INDEX 


Abaissement  du  niveau  mental, 

243 
Abraham,  286,  287,  318,  322,  326, 

344,  362,  388 
Ab reaction,  21 
Abreagirung,  21 
Absolute  inverts,  292 
Abstinence,  177 
Absurd,  412,  432 
Absurdity,  412,  419,  430 
Accidental  actions,  62 
Accordance,  430 
Actions,  446 
Activity,  400 

Acts   of   becoming   unconscious, 
168,  169,  170 

of  pertinence,  168 

of  prevention,  168 

revengeful,  392 
Actual  neurosis,  127 

distinguished  from  psycho- 
neurosis,  134,  135 
Adjustment,  276,  287 
Affects,  20 

compulsive,  168 

dislocation  of,  24 

of  shame,  22 

opposing,  34 

painful,  447 
After  repression,  283 
Aggression,  165,  178,  421 

hostile,  426,  427 

sexual,  171,  424 
Aim,  32 

sexual,  390,  421 
Alcoholic  indulgence,  432 
Alcoholics,  279 
Alexander  the  Great,  legend  of,  84 


Algolagnia,  363,  387 
Allan,  R.  A.,  382 
Alliteration,  430 
Allusion,  418,  430 
Ambivalent,  259,  355 
Amnesia,  33 

Amphigenous  inverts,  292 
Anal  eroticism,  390,  392 

zone,  391 
Analysis  of  dreams,  37 
Anecdotage,  401 
Anecdote,  413,  417 
Animals,  446 

in  dreams,  174 
Animism,  382 
Anus,  28,  29,  390 
Anxiety,  128 

definition,  226 

dreams,  100 

equivalents  of,  129 

hysteria,  94,  135 

in  climacterium,  133 

in  intentional  abstainers,  133 

in  senility,  133 

neurosis,  127,  128 

occurrence  and  etiology  of, 

131 
symptoms,  127,  128 
through  overwork,  134 

states,  100 
Aphonia,  135 
Arc  de  cercle,  313,  314 
Aristotle,  400 
Artificial  dreams,  123 
Asnaourow,  387,  389 
Asocial,  442 
Assistance,  experiment,  199,  202 

principle  of,  436 


455 


456 


INDEX 


Associations,  35,  199,  230,  233, 
235,  241 

free,  37 

inner,  429 

rules  of,  105 

therapy,  300 
Astasia  abasia,  135,  314 
Attention,  114,  199 

suspension  of,  443 

test  of,  114 
Autoerotic,  351 

character,  28 

sexual  manifestations,  28,  29 
Autoerotism,  159,  274,  276,  287, 

351 
Automatic,  414 
Automatisms,  221,  226,  243,  343, 

414 
Avariciousness,  392 

Bailey,  182 
Beers,  126 
Beling,  163 
Bernheim,  21,  22,  191 
Bestiality,  174 
Binet,  294 
Bisexual,  316 

theory  in  homosexuality,  295 
Bisexuality,  294 
Bladder,  28,  29,  390 
Blasphemous  thoughts,  182 
Bleuler,   26,   44,   114,    199,   207, 

226,    248,   249,  251,  253,  256, 

262,  287,  288,  344,  355 
Bloch,  147,  151,  291,  292,  341 
Blocking,  47,  139 
Bowels,  control  of,  390 
Breuer,  18,  19,  21,  191 
Brevity,  403,  441 
Brothers    and    sisters,    passion 

between,  341 

CopROPHiLic  activities,  194 

Caricature,  446 

Caorit,  299 

Castration  complex,  156,  157 

Catharsis,  21 


Censor,  225 

fear  of,  82 
Character,  30,  169,  351,  390 

illogical,  410 

of  wit,  420 

peculiar  traits  of,  110,  392 

type  of,  275 
Charade,  405 
Chevalier,  294 
Child,  83,  431,  441 

and  symbolism,  113 

desires  of,  86 

favorite,  348 
Childhood,  351,  425,  448 

second,  29 

sexual  impulse  of,  351 
Children,  association  with,  358 

favorite,  303,  339,  351,  353 

only,  303,  339,  360 
Chorea,  446 
Citations,  430 
Civilization,  330 
Cleanliness,  392 
Cloaca  theory,  189,  450 
Clowns,  446 
Cohen,  77 
Coitus,  340,  365 

disgusting,  33 

interruptus,  132,  134,  136,  137, 
172 

reservatus,  132 
Collecting  manias,  68 
among  insane,  73 
College  cries,  431 
Colloquialisms,  117 
Comic  and  wit,  442 
Comical,  440,  442,  446,  447 

pleasure,  445 
Compensation,  182 
Complex,  42,  80 

constellation,  62,  216 

definition  of,  203 

disturbance  of,  216 

indicators,  77,  101,  202,  216 

main,  140 

svmbols,  62 


INDEX 


457 


Components,  28 

homosexual,  30,  178 

incestuous,  357 

masochistic,  30 

sadistic,  30,  171,  175,  325 
Compromise,  23,  32,  34,  243,  448 
Compulsion  neurosis,  24,  36,  163, 
391,  397 
course  of,  165,  166 
definition  of,  164 
explanation  of,  176 
formula  of,  165 
mechanism  of,  165 
periods  of,  166 
Concealment,  81 
Conception  of  consciousness,  40 

of  repression,  80 
Condensation,  92,  98,  223,  401, 
403,  408,  420,  441 

thought,  404 

with  substitution,  402,  419 
Condom,  136 
Conflict,  32,  243, 326 

in  paranoia,  277 

mental,  32,  141 
Confusion,  400 

hallucinatory,  25 
Congenital  inverts,  293 
Consanguineous  marriages,  326 
Conscious  incestuous  feelings,  341 

perception,  441 
Consciousness,  40,  41,  83 

conception  of,  40 

flight  from,  170 

function  of,  41 

splitting  of,  23,  81 
Constellations,  243 
Constipation,  obstinate,  395 
Constitution,  abnormal  sexual,  31 

sexual,  31,  439 
Contamination,  223 
Contrary  sexuals,  290 
Contrast  dream,  112 
Conversion,  23,  34,  312 

adaptation  for,  24 

hysteria,  135 


Conversion,  process  of,  23 
Conversions,  220 
Convulsions,  135 
Coprophilic  activities,  314 
Coriat,  299,  345 
Courtship,  423 
Cravings,  320 
Crisis,  224 
Cruelty,  29,  172,  324,  325,  398 

its  relation  to  sex,  325 
Cryptogram,  38 
Curiosity,  30,  179,  423 

Day  dreamers,  80 
dreams,  219,  310 
analysis  of,  324 
remnants,  91 
Defense,  421 

mechanism  of  defense  neuro- 
psychosis, 24 
neuropsychosis,  24,  165 
Degenerative,  31 
D61ire  de  toucher,  157 
Delusions  of  grandeur,  273,  279, 
286,  287 
of  jealousy,  279 
of  observation,  167 
of  persecution,  273,  277,  278 
of  poverty,  73 
of  self-accusation,  242 
Dementia,  247,  248 

praecox,    206,    216,   221,   240, 
248,  250,  287,  351,  354 
and   paranoia,    relation   be- 
tween, 286,  287 
characteristic  of,  240 
Depreciative,  353 
Depression,  136,  137,  353 

recurrence  of,  144 
Desires,  primitive,  83 
Detached  affect,  24 
Deterioration,    419 

hereditary,  31 
Determinism,  75 
Diarrhoea,  130 
Dipsomania,  168 


458 


INDEX 


Discrimination,  115 
Disfigurement,  281 
Disguise,  433,  446 
Disgust,  28,  30 
Dislikes,  349 
Disorder,  392 

Displacement,  93,  178,  410,  411, 
419,  420,  430,  441 

from  below  to  above,  90,  102 
Displacement-wit,  411 
Disposition,  hostile,  426 
Disproportion,  240 
Dissimilarities,  union  of,  400 
Dissociations,  226 
Distortion,  81,  178,  282 
Distraction,  200 
Double  meaning,  406 
Doubting  mania,  181 
Doubts,  24,  163,  181,  397 
Dream,  34,  35,  40,  78,  419,  441 

analysis,  37,  193 

contrast,  112 

early  Greek  theories,  78 

formation  of,  82 

function  of,  91 

inhibition  in,  98 

interpretation  of,  34,  37,  138 

(Edipus,  335 

of  resolution,  122 

relation  of,  to  neurosis,  94,  102 
to  normal  and  abnormal  life, 
79 

resolution,  122 

speech  in,  246 

symbols  in,  113 

thoughts  as  expressed  in  bible, 
78 

translation  of,  35 

wish  of,  82 

work,  91,  403 
Dreams^  accompanied  by  anxiety, 
226 
by  fear,  88 

and  poetry,  114 

and  wit,  441 

artificial,  123 


Dreams,  classes  of,  87 

condensation  in,  403 

exhibition,  263 

fair}'  tales  as  determinant  of, 
363 

forgetting  of,  100,  173 

formation  of,  82 

in  diagnosis,  100 

intellectual  activity  in,  93 

judgment  in,  93 

logical  relationsliips,  93 

mechanism  of,  80 

of  painful  nature,  88 

reasoning  in,  93 

relation  to  neurosis  and  psy- 
choses, 78 

similarity  in,  93 

structure  and  mechanism,  78 

symbolic  expressions  in  dreams, 
116 

symbolism,  78 

technic  of  interpretation,  78 
Dreamy  states,  155,  310,  318 
examples  of,  319,  320 
psychological  significance  of, 
323 
Dyspnea,  130 

Economy,  392,  429,  448 

of  expression,  408 

of  sympathy,  448 
Ego,  23,  286 

complex,  221,  227,  243 

incompatability  with,  22 
Egotist,  353 
Ejaculatio  prsecox,  132 
ElUpses,  178 

Ellis,  H.,  147,  151,  291,  341,  389 
Emotion,  446 

discharge  of,  141 

strangulation  of,  20 
Empiricism,  349 
Enemy,  425 
Erogenous   zones,    28,    29,    351, 

390,  397 
Eros,  26,  211 


INDEX 


459 


Erotic  interest,  395 
Eroticism,  390 

Erotomania,  273,  277,  278,  279 
Erroneously  carried-out  actions, 

52,  53 
Esthetic  culture,  436 
Ethical  training,  83 
Eunuch,  90 
Euphemisms,  81 
Euphoria,  238,  319,  448 
Excitement,  peripheral,  28 

sexual,  421 

sum  of,  21 
Exhibit,  423 
Exhibition,  172,  421,  423 

dreams,  263 
Exhibitionism,  29,  30,  172,  324, 

325 
Exhibitionists,  354 

Fabrications,  31? 
Factor,  causative,  32 

characteristic  of  hysteria,  135 
Fairy  tales,  363 
False   connection,  24 
Famihar,  discovery  of,  430,  432 
Fancies,  conscious,  311,  312 

hysterical,  310 

sexual,  142 

unconscious,  311,  312 
Father  image,  349,  350 
Favorite  child,  339 
Fear  in  dreams,  88,  139,  225,  340 

in  newly  married,  132 

of  betrayal,   169 

social,  167 

virginal,  132 
Fechner,  435 
Federn,  155,  385 
Feelings,  esthetic,  30 

homosexual,  275 

incestuous,  340 

moral,  30 

sexual,  31 

among  brothers  and  sisters, 
341 


Feelings,  social,  351 

Fere,  125 

Ferenczi,  273,  288,  344,  346,  362 

Fiction,  431 

Fischer,  400,  408 

Fishberg,  359,  360 

Fixation,  20,  275,  277,  283,  340, 
348,  351,  356 
incestuous,  340,  346 
in  narcism,  286 

FoUe  du  doute,  131,  137,  181 

Foreconscious,  40,  41,  441,  447 

Forel,  128 

Fore-pleasure,  443 
meaning  of,  437 

Forgetting,  23,  80 
of  dreams,  100,  173 
of  names,  36,  43,  44 
of  objects,  437 
of  resolutions,  53 

Forgotten  impressions,  22 

Free  associations,  37,  47 
will,  74 

Freud,  17,  18,  19,  21,  22,  24,  27, 
28,  30,  31,  34,  35,  37,  40,  41, 
44,  61,  66,  77,  79,  87,  123,  125, 
126,  127,  128,  132,  135,  145, 
151,  169,  176,  185,  189,  191, 
192,  193,  198,  199,  207,  217, 
221,  226,  227,  242,  244,  246, 
251,  263,  264,  273,  274,  275, 
284,  287,  288,  289,  290,  294, 
296,  300,  301,  310,  321,  325, 
328,  330,  331,  333,  334,  335, 
344,  346,  348,  351,  355,  362, 
363,  389,  390,  391,  392,  400, 
401,  410,   416,  441 

Freudian  school,  348 

Friedjung,  153,  361 

Frigidity,  100 
in  women,  356 

Ganser,  318 
Generalization,  178 
Genitals,  28,  390 
primacy  of,  29,  30 


460 


INDEX 


Gratification,    132,   424 

insufficient,  134 

sexual,  311,  312 
Gregory,  M.  S.,  25,  244 
Griesinger,  151 
Grim  humor,  419,  447 
Groos,  432 
Guttceit,  149 

Hallucinations,  221,  442 

auditory,  226,  227 

teleological,  226 
Hallucinatory  confusion,  25 
Hauptmann,  78 
Heart  spasm,  129 
Hebephrenia,  287 
Hellenic  state,  243 
Hereditary  deterioration,  31 

lues,  32 
Heredity,  352 
Hermaphrodites,     psychosexual, 

292 
Hermaphroditism,  294 

psychic,  295 
theory  of,  296 
Heterosexual,  274 
Heterosexuality,  277 
Hindrances,  426 

internal,  428 

outer,  428 
Hirschfeld,  291,  292,  294, 295,  299 
Hobbies,  68 
Hoch,  207 
Holt,  39 
Homosexual,  354 

episode,  317 

object  selection,  274 

pederasts,  396 

relation,  216 

unconscious,  299 

wish-phantasies,  270,  273,  274, 
276 
Homosexuality,  27,  100,  275,  281, 
289,  281,  355,  356 

abhorrence  to,  289-290 

acquired,  294 


Homosexuality,   among   Greeks, 
296 

bisexual  theory  in,  295 

congenital,  293,  294 

cure  in,  307 

diagnosis  of,  100,  297 

pathological,  289 

secondary    sex    characteristics 
in,  295 

sexual  aim  in,  297 

tardive,  294 

theories  of,  294 

unconscious,  277 

universaUty  of,  290-291 
Horseshoe  as  talisman,  71 
Humor,  447 

grim,  419,  447 

pleasure  of,  447 
Hunger,  321 

Hyperesthesia,  auditory,  128 
Hypnosis,  21,  300 
Hypnotic  state,  18 
Hypnotism,  its  limitations,  21 
Hypochondriacal  ideas  of  mas- 

turbator,  169 
Hypocrisy,  26 
Hysteria,  18,  32,  286 

character  of,  23 

identification  in,  280 

symptoms  of,  18,  23 
Hysteric,  19 
Hysterical  accusations,  315 

attacks,  310 

counter-will,  19 

fainting  spells,  170 

fancies,  310 

symptoms,  18,  20,  32,  35 

Ibsen,  112 

Idea  of  sudden  death,  129 

of  threatening  insanity,  129 
Ideas,  contrasting,  400 

hypochondriacal,  232 
Ideler,  125 
Identification,  107,  280,  314,  396 

in  hysteria,  280,  281 


INDEX 


461 


Identification,  unconscious,  54 
Idiogamists,  339 
Illogical  character,  410 

conclusions,  430 
Imitation,  446 
Impotence,  psychic,  356 

psychosexual,  89,  157,  339 
Impressions,  forgotten,  43 

mental,  349 

optical,  422 

repressed,  41 

tenaciousness  of,  43 
Impudent,  443 
Impulse  for  cruelty,  29 

for  looking,  29,  178 

for  showing,  29,  439 

for  touching,  29 

libidinous,  424 

of  exhibitionism,  324 
Impulses,  330 

constitutional,  331 

first  sexual,  337 

partial,  29 

primitive,  30,  40 

sexual,  26 

to  show  off,  439 
Incest,  abhorrence  of,  340,  341 

among    savages,    346 

shyness,  346,  357 
Indecision,  181 
Indirect  expression,  418,  420 
Individual  psychology,  18 

relations,  351 
Infancy,  28,  390 
Infantile  masturbation,  150 

sexual    curiosity,    sublimation 
of,  30 
theories,  139 

sexuality,  171,  289 
Influences,  toxic,  431 
Ingenuous,  443 
Inhibiting  process,  85 
Inhibition,  47,  48,  83,  279,  330 

expenditure  in,  448 

inner,  437 

of  decorum,  434 


Inhibition,  psychic,  429 

social,  421 

suspension  of,  440 
Inman,  Thomas,  71,  117, 126,  389 
Innervation,     motor,     23,     312 

sensory,  23 

somatic,  24 
Inordinate  appetite,  130 
Insane,  collecting  manias  among, 
73 

utterances,  26,  38 
Insanity,  masturbation,  161 
Insomnia,  137 

cause  of,  128 
Insatiableness,  74 
Insult,  psychology  of,  436 
Inversion,  theories  of,  294 
Inverts,  290 

absolute,  292 

amphigenous,  292 

congenital,  293 

occasional,  292 
Irritability,    23,    128,    191,    221, 

243,  248 

Janet,  23,  191,  221,  243,  248 
Jealousy,  106,  344,  345,  355 

delusions  of,  279 
Jest,  438 

its  object,  433 

witt}%  405 
Jeu  de'sprit,  405 
Jewish  jokes,  439 

race,  359 
Joke,  81 

hostile,  421 

obscene,  421,  425 

smutty,  421,  422 
its  motive,  421,  422 
Jones,  44,  75,  77,  109,  196,  273, 

288,  344 
Judaism,  359 
Judgment,  420,  433 

critical,  438 
Jung,  62,  125,  145,  199,  202,  207, 

216,  221,  226,  344,  348 


462 


INDEX 


KiERNAN,  151,  292,  294 
Kindergarten,  359 
Kleinpaul,  117 
Kraepelin,  206,  207,  250 
Krafft-Ebing,  292,  294,  295,  341 

Lapses  of  memory,  43 

of  talking,  43,  45,  56,  57 

of  writing,  43 
Lapsus  linguae,  56,  57,  101 
Lasegue,  125 
Latency  period,  30,  351,  390 

deferred,  172 
Latent  content,  83 
Laughing,  437,  446 
Laughter,  420,  425 
Le  Sage,  396 
Libidinous  manifestations,   first, 

28 
Libido,  32,  274,  275,  279 

fixation,  326 

for  looking,  422 

for  touching,  422 

withdrawal  of,  284,  285,  286, 
287 
Liebman,  249 
Loathing,  30,  390 
Locke,  348 
Logic,  412 

false,  413,  419,  430 

restraint  of,  432 
Looking,  30 

libido  for,  422 
Losing  objects,  75 
Love,  26,  321,  349 

abnormal,  353,  354 

and  hatred,  179 

between  parents  and  children, 
330,  349 

deflection  of,  350 

doubt  about,  181 

object,  29,  154 

projection  of,  349 

the  struggle  between,  179 
Lowenfeld,  318 
Lydston,  292,  294 


Maeder,  288 

Mania,  doubting,  181 

Manic  depressive  insanity,  137 

Manifest  content,  83 

Manifold  application,  406,  408, 

410,  415 
Mannerism,  90 
Mantegazza,  339 
Marriages,  consanguineous,  326 
Masculine  prostitutes,  296 
Masochistic   components,    subli- 
mation of,  30 
Masochists,  354 

Masturbation,  27,  28,  33,  34,  76, 
90,  136,  146,  169,  241,  243, 
311,  322 

causes,  149 

control  of,  156 

controlled,  154 

dangers  of,  150 

environment  in,  158 

false    ideas    concerning,     136, 
150,  151 

fear  and  punishment  in,  156, 
158 

in  adult,  160 

in  children,  156 

infantile,  28,  150 

insanity,  161 

interrupted,  327 

its  universality,  136,  148 

mental,  328 

mutual,  297 

physical  health  and,  153 

psychological  factors  connected 
with,  155 

relation  to  neurosis  and  psy- 
chosis, 146 

sexual  outlet,  158 

somnambulistic,  33 

treatment  of,  160 

unconscious,  33,  34 
Masturbators,  146 

chronic  60 

characteristics  of,  155 

hypochondriacal  ideas  of,  16^ 


INDEX 


463 


Masturbo-fantastic  gratification, 

312 
Maturity,  32 
Measures,  protective,  167 
Mechanism  of  obsessions,  178 
Melancholia,  periodic,  167 
Memory  gaps,  36 

lapses  of,  35,  43 

symbols,  20,  23 
Mental  concentration,  324 

conflict,  32 

impressions,  349 
Metathesis,  60 
Meyer,  Adolf,  207,  250-254 
Miserhness,  394 
Mislaying,  51 
Missending,  52 
Mistakes  in  printing,  61 

in  reading,  56,  60 

in  speaking,  56,  59 

in  talking,  35 

in  writing,  56,  59 
Modesty,  sexual,  421 
Moll,  147,  151, 153,  154,  291,  294, 

300 
Money  complex,  395,  396 
Monosexuality,  294 
Morality,  30 
Morbid  perception,  26 
Mortality,  390 
Morton,  191 
Mother  Goose,  431 

ideal,  301,  350 

image,  337,  349 

influence  of,  337 
Mother-in-law,  348,  355 
Mouth,  28,  390 
Movements,  446 
Muscular  cramps,  130 
Music  expressing  the  complex,  74 
Mysophobia,  192 

Nacke,  101,  292,  294,  298 
Naive,  443,  444,  445 

functions  of,  443,  444 
Naivete,  examples  of,, 444 


Nancy  school,  17 

Narcism,  274,  275,  276,  286,  302, 

351 
Natura  frigida,  188 
Nausea,  316 

hysterical,  102 
Neatness,  394 
Negligence,  392 
Nelken,  382 

Neologisms,  370,  401,  431 
Neter,  153,  348 
Neurasthenia,  etiology  of,  127 

periodic,  167 

symptoms,  127 
Neuroses,  30,  32,  127 

mixed,  322 

unconscious  factors  in,   184 
Neurotic  individual,  356 
Nightmares,  100 
Night-terrors,  364 
Nocturnal  frights,  130 
Nonsense,  412 
Nonsensical,  412,  419 
Noopsyche,  240 
Normal,  30 

individual,  356 

sexuality,  30 

Object  love,  274,  286,  351 
Obscene  joking,  325,  421,  439 
Obsession,  24,  163,  397 

psychanalysis  of,  36,  38,   103, 
104,  178 
Obsessive  thinking,  165 
Obstacles,  overcoming  of,  86 
Obstinacy,  392,  395 
Obstinate,  392 

constipation,  395 
Obstruction,  47 
Occasional  inverts,  292 
(Edipus  complex,  179,  326,  329, 
344 

dreams,  335,  336 

in  psychoses,  343 

legend,  331,  332 
Onanism,  151,  312 


464 


INDEX 


Only  child,  339,  348 

attributes  of,  348,  352 
drawbacks  of,  352 
in  adult  life,  348 

Orderliness,  394 

Orderly,  392 

Outdoing,  417 

Painful  arm,  33 

idea,  23 
Palpitation,  129 
Paralysis,  33,  135 

of  volition,  180 
Paranoia,  165,  270,  282,  343 

and  dementia  pragcox  relations 
between,  286 

psychological   mechanisms   of, 
270 
Paranoid  condition,  273 

ideas,  359 
Paraphrenia,  250,  287 
Parental  ideals,  349 

influence,  349,  351 
unconscious,  339 
Parents,  fixation  on,  348 

influence  of,  329 

jealousj^  of,  345 

neglect  of,  330 

syphilis  in,  32 
Paresthesia,  130 
Parody,  446 

Partial  impulses,  28,  29,  324 
repression  of,  29,  30 
revival  of,  398 
Passion    between    brothers    and 

sisters,  341 
Passivity,  165 
Pathogenic  ideas,  22 

memory,  166 
Pathological  homosexuality,  289 
Paul,  Jean,  400 
Pavor  nocturuus,  130,  386 
Pedantry,  128 
Pederasty,  102,  172 
Peepers,  423 
Pelletier,  113 


Pelman,  72 

Periodic  depression,  136 

melancholia,  167 

neurasthenia,  167 
Persecution,  278 
Perspiration,  profuse,  129 
Perversions,  30,  31,  354,  356,  423 

negative  of,  31,  32,  399 
Perverts,  32,  280,  361 
Peterson,  125,  248,  391,  393 
Phantasies,  31 
Phobias,  131,  163,  168,  397 

origin  of,  24 
Picture  test,  114 
Pity,  30 

Play-pleasure,  438 
Pleasure,  436 

feeUng  of,  420,  421 

inaccessible,  433 

mechanism,  427 

of  humor,  447 

repressed,  395 

sources,  421,  432 
Poetry  and  dreams,  114 
Polymorphous  perverse,  30,  175, 

192,  261,  289,  315 
Posthypnotic   suggestions,  191 
Poverty,  delusions  of,  73 
Praying,  182 
Precocious,  352 
Predisposition,  221,  439 
Premium,  437 
Prescott,  F.  C,  114 
Primitive  impulses,  40 

thinking,  113 
Prince,  M.,  108,  191 
Projection  mechanism,  178,  281, 

282,  287  • 
Prophylaxis,  358,  361 
Prostitutes,    _aasculine,   296 
Prostitution  complex,  338,  339 
Protective  measures,  167,  182 

mechanisms,  41 
Prudishness,  26 
Pseudo-angina  pectoris,  129 
Pscadoiogia   phantastica,    315 


INDEX 


465 


Pseudonyms,  242 

Psychic  activities,  incorrect,  43 

censor,  22,  23,  47,  82 

damming,  428 

expenditure,  429,  430,  432 
economy  of,  438 

force,  22,  82,  425 

hermaphroditism,    theory    of, 
296 

hindrances,  32 

impotence,  354,  356 

pain,  19 

shocks,  218 

state,  445 

streams,  32,  40,  221,  244 

traumas,  19,  26 

work,  22 
Psychoanalysis,  17,  240,  395 

duration  of,  39 

in  psychoses,  199,  203 

method  of,  36,  138 

of  anxiety  hysteria,  94,  136 

of  hysterical  symptom,  32 

of  obsession,  38 
Psychoanalytic  method,  22 
Psychoasthenias,  164 
Psychogenesis,  218 

of  wit,  427 
Psychology,  experimental,  199 

individual  factors  of,  18 

of  love  and  hatred,  77 

of  mother-in-law,  348 
Psychoneuroses,  17,  127,  226,  354 

causation  of,  424 
Psychoneurotic  symptom,  36,  40 
Psychopathological   actions,    37, 

40,  43 
Psychosexual  constitution,  324 

development,  169,  351 

hermaphrodites,  292 

impotence,  89,  157,  336,  339 
Psychosexuality,   27 
Psychosis,  25 
Psychotherapy,  17,  18,  32 

schools  of,  18 
Puberty,  age  of,  27,  390 
30 


Puberty,  beginning  of,  30 
Public  school,  359 
Puns,  408 
Putnam,  344,  388 

Rank,  344,  388 
Reaction  dream,  112 

formations,  390,  394,  397 

time,  200 

types,  200 
Reactions,  30,  200,  325 
Reality,  431 
Reason,  431 
Recantations,  220 
Rectum,  394 
Reduplications,  431 
Refrain,  430 
Regression,  275,  287 

of  sublimation,  279 
Reitler,  155 
ReUability,  394 
Religion,  330 
Remarks,  witty,  427 
Reminiscences,  hysterical,  19 
Remote  analogies,  114 
Removal  pleasure,  438 
Repartee,  415 
Representation       through       the 

opposite,  417,  419 
Repressed  impressions,  41 
Repression,  22,  23,  30,  32,  34,  35, 
41,   80,   81,   282,   286,   314, 
424,  425,  435 

conception  of,  80 

failure  of,  22,  283,  397 

phases  of,  282,  283 

retarded,  397 

return  of,  167,  183 
Reproaches,  166 
Reproachful  actions,  167 
Reproduction  in  association  ex- 
periment, 75,  101 

of  traumatic  scenes,  21 
Resistances,  43,  100,  420,  431 

overcoming  of,  22 

unconscious,  43,  173 


466 


INDEX 


Resolution   dream,    122 
Respiratory  disturbances,  129 
Resultant  pleasure,  403,  435 
Retort,  428 
Retrogression,  275 
Reveries,  217 
Rhyme,  430 
Riklin,  199,  207 
Rohleder,  147,  149 
Romer,  291 

Sachs,  155 

Sadger,  155,  274,  294,  300,  301, 

302 
Sadism,  372 

in  fairy  tales,  361,  362,  381 
Sadist,  325,  354 

Sadistic  component,  171,  175,  357 
sublimation  of,  30 

conception,  139 
Sante  de  Sanctis,  125 
Satire,  421 

Schizophrenia,  229,  248,  253,  287 
Schrenck-Notzing,  294 
Screaming  spells,  170 
Scrupulosity,    166,    392 

meaning  of,  110 
Secondary  defense,  167,  168 

elaboration,  93 

rationalization,  284 
Seduction,  sexual,  166 
Selection,  422 

of   professions,  63,  376 

prehistoric,  357 
Self-willed,  393 
Semi-stuporous  state,  170 
Senseless,  433,  445 
Sex,  abnormal,  354 

development,  27 
Sexual  aberrations,  290 

aims,  290 

anesthesia,  132,  354 

attack,  141 

barriers,  351 

conception  of,    26 

constitution,  30,  31 


Sexual  curiosity,  367,  369,  423 

development,  27 

excitement,  28,  32 

exhibitionist,  325 

experiences  of  childhood,  26 

germs,  27 

gratification,  311,  312 

ignorance,  26 

impulse,  26,  27,  351,  390 

latency  period,  390 

life,  abnormal,  31 

maladjustments,  356 

modesty,  423 

object,  286,  290,  346,  351,  422 

overestimation,  355 

perverse  activity,  32 

somatic  injuries,  135 

suppression,  226 

symbols,  116,  143,  403 

theories,  30 

trauma,  338 
Sexuality,  26 

infantile,  289 

normal,  30 
SexuaUzation,  275 
Sexuals,  contrary,  290 
Shaking  attacks,  130 
Shame,  30,   166,   167,   170,  324, 

390 
Shapes,  446 

Similar  and  cognate,  418 
Skatological,  391,  392 

obsessions,  397 
Skylarking,  431 
Smile,  421 
Smutty-joke,  421 
Social  aims,  29,  30 

cultivation,  424 

feelings,  275,  351 
Society,  426 

Somatic  innervation,  24 
Somnambulism,  22 
Son-in-law,  355,  357 
Sophism,  414 
Sound  association,  98 
Spectator,  passive,  426 


INDEX 


467 


Speech  in  dream,  246 

Spielrein,  382 

Steinach,  296 

Stekel,  126, 135, 145, 151, 344, 362 

Stereotype,  247 

Stimulus  words,  199 

Strangulated  emotions,  20,  23 

Strauss,  317 

Studien  iiber  Hysterie,  18 

Sublimation,  30,  275,  276,  390, 

422 
Substitution,  178,  416 
Substitutive  formation,  23,  403 

gratifications,  322 
Suggestions,  221,  224 
Suicide  explanation  of,  244 

methods  of,  244 
Sully,   J.,    125 
Superiority,    447 
Superstition,  396 
Symbol,  139 

definition  of,  113 

gross  sexual,  117 
Symbolic  actions,  61,  62,  220,  247 

expressions,  37,  49,   117,  225, 
244,  245 
in  dreams,  46 
SymboUsm,  81,  101,  104,  121,  382 

in  dreams,  116,  121 

in  hallucinations,  114 

in  insanity,  114 

in  rehgion,  93,  114 
Symbols,  113 

Sympathy,  economy  of,  447 
Symptoms,  32 

as    expression    of    wish    fulfil- 
ment, 103 
.  hysterical,  312 

psychoneurotic,  36 
Synge,  334 
S5rphilis  in  parents,  32 

Tabula  rasa,  348 
Tachycardia,  129 
Teleological,  226 
Tenaciousness  of  impressions,  43 


Tendency  wit,  325,  425,  426,  427, 
433 

hostile,  426 
Test  person,  201 

picture,  115 

words,  200-201 
Thought  condensation,  404 
Thoughts,  witty,  409 
Thumbsucking,  28 
Thymopsyche,  240 
Tics,  19,  446 
Touching,  30 

Ubido  for,  422 
Townsend,  153 
Transference,  276,  282,  350 
Transformation,  403 
Transitory  arrhythmia,  129 
Trauma,  19 

psychic,  19,  26 

sexual,  33,  338 
Travesty,  446 
TrembUng,  attacks  of,  130 
Tucker,  Beverly  R.,  192,  307 
Twofold  application,  405 

Ulrich,  295 

Unconscious,  40,  80,  350,  441,  447 

activity,  192 

and  wit,  441 

attachment,  351 

complexes,  221 

factors  in  neuroses,  184 

homosexuaUty,  277 

homosexuals,  299 

language  of,  173 

parental  influences,  339 

resistances,  43 

sadism,  176 

the  language  of,  173 

wit,  415,  427,  430 
Uranism,  290 

Vain,  353 
Van  Dyke,  40 
Vertigo,  130 
Violence,  392 


468 


INDEX 


Vischer,  400 

Von  Hug-Hellmuth,  154,  157 

Voyeurs,  354,  423 

Wanke,  388 
Waterman,  109 
Wernicke,  206 
Wildman,  343 
Wish,  41,  227 

fulfilment,  35,  36,  87,  321 

hidden,  88,  442 
fulfilment  of,  83,  144 

unattainable,  22,  23,  43 
Wish-phantasies,  315 

homosexual,  270,  273,  274,  276, 
277 
Wit,  75 

and  dreams,  441 

and  the  comic,  442 

and  the  unconscious,  441 

characteristic  quaUties  of,  400, 
420 

discrepancies  in,  401 

distribution,  435 

diversities  in,  401 

divisions  of,  400 

harmless,  419,  420,  425,  427, 
438 


Wit,  motives  of,  438 

obscene,  425,  434 

of  aggression,  439 

psychogenesis  of,  427 

purposeful,  419 

purposeless,  434 

shallow,  420 

social  process,  438 

technic  of,  401,  420 

tendencies  of,   419 

theory  of,  400 
Wit-making,  435,  438 
Witticism,  420,  433 
Woman,  421,  423 

unyieldingness  of,  423 
Words,  obscene,  422 

playing  with,  431 

witty,  409,  419 
World  system,  285 

Zones,  27 

anal,  391,  397 

erogenous,    28,    29,   351,   390, 
397 

genital,  30 
Zoophilia,  174 
Zurich   school,  26,  80,  101,  199, 

207,  248 


5bl  2 


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